Organ donation (3)

In the last blog, we looked at various narrations that said that it was Haram to cut the body of a dead Muslim. Most scholars, including Ayatullah Muhsini, infer from this, that the impermissibility of organ donation (because of the requirement to cut the body of a Muslim) is the base position.

(By base position, I mean that in the absence of any other arguments, is it correct to say that it would be Haram).

One might argue that this should not be the base position, as it is not even applicable today, because these narrations refer to mutilating bodies for fun/war. However, from a hadith studies perspective, this is a difficult argument to justify, because there is no textual and direct indication of this within the narrations. The way that traditional hadith studies works, is that if there is a general statement, in the absence of any qualifier (qarina), it is generalised to consider all situations. Therefore, the ahadith in the previous blog would seem to suggest the impermissibility of cutting the body of a dead Muslim for any reason (ceteris paribus!)

Now there are exceptions to this rule already available in the Shari’a, for example, when a foetus has passed away and the mother has also passed away before birth, then it is permissible to make an incision (shaqq) on the side to remove the child. Similarly, if an individual has swallowed an item, it is permissible to retrieve it by slitting open the dead body on the condition it is to redress a legitimate claim (i.e. it was previously usurped). It is not allowed for the heirs unless it was specified in the will. However, note that this only allows an incision (shaqq) not mutiliation (qat’) due to the respect given to the dead body (1).

In the next blog, we will discuss the apparent discriminatory attitude that is inferred from these narrations with regards to obtaining organs from the dead bodies of Muslims and non-Muslims.

(1) Islamic Bio Medical Ethics, Page 178-9 where Sachedina quotes from Tavakkuli, al-Tarqi wa zar’ al-a’da’. Note that Sachedina’s work is not focussed solely on Shi’i views, and is considered to be the first and pre-eminent work on the topic