Current Legal Issues

 

  • BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICE
    • (18) Rules of Transplantation
(49) It is not permissible to remove any organ from a dead body of a Muslim, such as an eye or the like to transplant it in another’s live body. If such an act was carried out the person who did it must bear the responsibility of paying compensation.
Is it permissible to transplant the part or organ that has been removed, or is it obligatory to bury it ?
The second is more likely. Of course, it is not obligatory to remove it after it has been transplanted where the spirit has entered it.
(50) Sometimes, the preservation of life of a Muslim is dependant on removing an organ from a dead body of a Muslim and transplanting it in his body. The compensation should be made obligatory on the person who carried out the operation of removal as a matter of ihtiyat. If, however, the organ was transplanted in the live body, the rules concerning the living are, therefore, applicable, because it has become part of it [the body].
(51) Is it permissible to remove an organ from the dead body of a Muslim and transplant it in a live body, if the life of the [counterpart] organ was dependent on the former?

Apparently, it is not permissible.

(52) Someone stated in his will that, after his death, some of his organs be removed by way of donation for use as necessary. If the life of a person is not threatened, [i.e. it is not dependant on receiving the donated organ], there is ishkal in implementing the will, so as in the permissibility of removing the organs. However, alal adhhar, compensation is not obligatory on the person who carried out the operation of removing the organs.
(53) Is it permissible to remove an organ of a living person to transplant it in another body if he consented to that?

There is some detail in this matter.
If the removal of the particular part or organ would inflect serious harm [on the donor], as in the case of removing an eye or amputating a hand or a foot, it is not permissible. Otherwise, it is permissible, as in the case of skin graft and bone marrow.

Is it permissible to charge money for this?
Apparently, it is permissible.
(54) It is permissible to donate blood for needy patients for a fee.
(55) It is permissible to remove organs from the dead body of an unbeliever, whose blood had been spared, or him whose state of faith is not known, to transplant them in the body of a Muslim. In this case, the rules regarding the body of a Muslim apply, for the new organ or part has become part of his body. There is, also, no harm in using organs of an inherently najis (ceremonially unclean) animal, such as dog. In this case, too, the rules concerning the recipient body apply. It is, therefore, permissible to perform prayer, on the assumption that it has become tahir through being part of the body as a result of the spirit entering it.