Cloning Fatwa No: 81168
- Fatwa Date:9-8-1999
What is Islam's point of view on cloning human beings? Temporary abortion as family planning?
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
A great clamor took place lately when the biologists said they were able to duplicate a sheep from another one and the way is now open for duplicating human beings on demand. What actually happened was that the biologists took a fecundated ovule, took out its nucleus and injected it instead with a living cell from another sheep. They, then thought that the living cell had started its normal multiplication and a foetus resulted from that. Then the sheep grew up from this cell. Here are the steps followed by these biologists: - To get an ovule from a sheep and take out its nucleus. - To get a normal cell from another sheep & take out its nucleus. - To put the nucleus of the normal cell in the ovule. - To put the ovule in the uterus of the mother, so it developed normally and a new sheep was born. This operation was made possible after making more than 300 operations to assimilate the nucleus acid taken from the dug cells with fertilized ovules. All of them failed and nobody knows what were their true results. Dr: Abdul Khaliq Muhammad says: “Cloning adult human beings cells by using the technique above is still impossible and all the attempts that were done so far had failed and it is still in its first stage. The few attempts that have succeeded resulted in very deformed beings. There is another way of cloning other than the one above i.e. the twins’ technique. In this technique the cell divides itself into two cells, then four … and so on and so forth. The scientists succeeded in isolating a cell from its mother cell. But the operation failed in its early stages. In both cases, this vain and futile game with foetuses has nothing to do with creation of human beings or animals. As the latters are very different from plants which could be reproduced using a plant of their buds. Fertilized ovules are the only ones where the cells reproduce themselves and each group of them takes its role and way. All this is made by Allah. Allah Says (Interpretation of meaning): {He it is who shapes you in the wombs as He pleases}. [Quran 2:6] And Allah Says (Interpretation of meaning): {And indeed We created man (Adam) out of an extract of clay. Therefore We made him (the offspring of Adam) as a Nutfah (mixed drops of the male and female sexual discharge) (and lodged it) in a safe lodging (womb of the woman). Then We made the Nutfah into a clot. Then We made the clot into a little lump of flesh, then We made out of that little lump of flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, and then we brought it forth as another creation. So blessed is Allah the Best of Creators}. [Quran 23:12] This strong desire to create a person or an animal through a way other than the one Allah has prescribed for him is a very old and perversive attempt. It is a consequence of a belief that existed among the old Roman disbelieves and which can be summarized as follows: It is a struggle between Man and God whereby God who owns knowledge enslavered Man. But the latter has stolen the light of knowledge from God. As a result, he became just like God aware of Bad and Good. But these scientists would not create any new creatures. That’s impossible because it is not from their specialties. It is even impossible to dispense the man with the woman or vice versa. They will not be able to create any new kinds of living beings animals or plants. Some researchers tried in vain to create a plant from a mixture of the genes of tomatoes and potatoes. The result was a poisonous fruit. This is just vainness and futility. Allah Says (Interpretation of meaning): {Do you then see the (Human seed) that you emit? Is it you who create it or are We the creators?}. [Quran 52:58] {See you the seed that you sow in the ground. Is it you that cause it to grow or are We the Cause?}. [Quran 52:63] These researchers who busy themselves with such vain and futile research will sooner or later know that it is just impossible. It is even a great crime.
Allah knows best.