Embryo cloning: Difference between revisions

|author = Mustafa Ali-Khānī

Embryo cloning is one type of cloning in which a human being is created by other than the usual way, through the division of human reproductive cells in a laboratory environment.  

Most Sunni jurists have considered embryo cloning to be forbidden. However, only few Shia jurists have taken positions regarding the permissibility or impermissibility of embryo cloning, and have expressed differing views in this regard. Sayyid Ali Sīstānī has considered cloning to be permissible. Also, jurists such as Sayyid Mohammad-Sa‘īd Ḥakīm, Mohammad Fāḍil Lankarānī and Mohammad Mohammadī Qā’īnī consider some types of it to be permissible and some others to be impermissible.  

Mohammad Mu’min and Mohammad Mohammadī Qā’īnī consider embryo cloning to be permissible in itself and only prohibit certain types of it <ref>Mu’min, Shabīhsāzī, pp. 50–80; Mohammadī Qā’īnī, al-Mabsūṭ fī Fiqh al-Masā’il al-Mu‘āṣira (al-Masā’il al-Ṭibbīyyah), vol. 2, p. 292</ref>. Although Mohammad Fāḍil Lankarānī deemed this practice permissible, he believed that it is not permissible if the created cell were to be placed in the womb of the man’s wife after his death <ref>Fāḍil Lankarānī, Aḥkām-i Pizishkān va Bīmārān, p. 94</ref>. Sayyid Mohammad Sa‘īd Ḥakīm considered embryo cloning permissible only if the cell is developed in the wife’s womb, but did not consider it permissible, based on obligatory precaution, to develop the cell in a stranger woman’s womb <ref>Ḥakīm, Fiqh al-Istinsākh al-Basharī va Fatāvī al-Ṭibbīyyah, p. 42</ref>. In contrast, Sayyid Ali Sīstānī believes that embryo cloning is not forbidden even in a stranger woman’s womb <ref>Sīstānī, Pursish va Pāsukh (questions and answers), Liqāḥ-i Maṣnū‘ī (in vitro fertilization), website of Ayatollah Sistani’s office</ref>. Ḥasan Javāhirī has deemed cloning permissible under two conditions: 1. The created embryo is not destroyed; 2. It is not carried out on a very large scale, leading to disruption of the system <ref>Javāhirī, Taqsīm-i Janīnī va Shabīhsāzī, p. 85</ref>. However, Mohammad Mu’min believes that failing to observe the mentioned conditions in achieving a cloned human being does not necessitate considering embryo cloning to be essentially forbidden; rather, in such a case, it should be said that embryo cloning is a permissible act that has been carried out through forbidden means, and the prohibition of the means (muqaddamah) does not imply the prohibition of the end goal (ḏī al-muqaddamah) <ref>Mu’min, Shabīhsāzī, p. 80</ref>.

Similar to human cloning which has been considered as modification of God’s creation and forbidden <ref>Subḥānī, Istiftā’āt, vol. 2, p. 256</ref>, this probability has been raised that embryo cloning is also forbidden because of the forbiddance of changing God’s creation. In explanation of this argument, it has been said that in verse 119 of surah an-Nisā’, changing God’s creation is introduced as a satanic act, and on the other hand, human and embryo cloning are of the instances of changing God’s creation; therefore, this act is haram <ref>Mu’min, Shabīhsāzī, pp. 51–52</ref>.  

According to Javād Tabrīzī and Ja‘far Subḥānī, human cloning leads to disruption in the system, and for this reason, human cloning is forbidden based on the primary ruling <ref> Tabrīzī, Ṣirāṭ al-Najāt, vol. 7, p. 230; Subḥānī, Istiftā’āt, vol. 2, p. 256</ref>. Although in the words of scholars, this argument has been raised only about human cloning, but Qā’īnī believes that this argument applies to embryo cloning as well <ref> Mohammadī Qā’īnī, al-Mabsūṭ fī Fiqh al-Masā’il al-Mu‘āṣirah (al-Masā’il al-Ṭibbīyyah), vol. 2, p. 288</ref>. In the explanation of this argument, it has been said that embryo cloning ultimately leads to the cessation of implementation of certain rulings; because, due to the inability to distinguish individuals from one another, the enforcement of legal punishments (ḥudūd) would become impossible <ref>Ibid, p. 289</ref>. Therefore, embryo cloning causes chaos in the society; because errors may arise in the identification of criminals, or the criminals may never be identified <ref>Ḥā’irī, Shabīhsāzī-yi Insān, p. 36; Javāhirī, Buḥūth fī al-Fiqh al-Mu‘āṣir, vol. 2, p. 302</ref>.  

It might be said that embryo cloning should only be done regarding the legitimate wife; because, based on the hadith narrated by Ali ibn Sālim from Imam Ṣādiq (AS) <ref> Javāhirī, Taqsīm-i Janīnī va Shabīhsāzī, p. 108; Islāmī, Shabīhsāzī-yi Insānī az Dīdgāh-i Shī‘i: Barrisī-yi Chahār Dīdgāh, p. 64; Mohammadī Qā’inī, al-Mabsūṭ fī Fiqh al-Masā’il al-Mu‘āṣirah (al-Masā’il al-Ṭibbīyyah), vol. 2, p. 289</ref>, it is forbidden to insert a man’s sperm (through other than adultery) into the womb of a stranger (non-mahram) woman <ref> Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 5, p. 541</ref>. Mohammad Mu’min has cited verses such as verse 31 of surah an-Nūr to explain this argument. Based on this verse, women should protect their private parts from being utilized by strangers, and placing a stranger (non-Mahram) man’s cell into the womb and egg of a non-mahram woman is of the clear instances of utilization by strangers <ref>Javāhirī, Taqsīm-i Sillūlī va Shabīhsāzī, p. 87</ref>. Mohammadī Qā’īnī even believes that based on the general meaning of this verse, implanting the cloned embryo is forbidden, not only in the womb of a stranger woman, but also in the womb of the wife who owns the ovule. This is because verse 31 of surah an-Nūr only introduces intercourse and childbearing through the normal way as permissible, and forbids the other cases <ref>Mu’min, Shabīhsāzī, pp. 53–54</ref>.  

However, Mohammad Mu’min and Ḥasan Javāhirī have considered this a weak argument. Ḥasan Javāhirī believes that it is insufficient to argue based on Ali ibn Sālim’s hadith alone. He holds that the expression “man’s sperm,” mentioned in the hadith, refers to semen and does not include a fertilized ovule <ref> Mohammadī Qā’inī, al-Mabsūṭ fī Fiqh al-Masā’il al-Mu‘āṣirah (al-Masā’il al-Ṭibbīyyah), vol. 2, pp. 287–300</ref>. Also, Mohammad Mu’min has explained that the contents of this hadith pertain specifically to sexual utilization and do not include cases such as cultivating cells in a woman’s womb <ref>Javāhirī, Taqsīm-i Sillūlī va Shabīhsāzī, p. 88</ref>. Also, although Mohammadī Qā’īnī considers the cultivation of cloned cells to be prohibited in all wombs, he believes that if scientific advancements make it possible to cultivate cloned cells in laboratory tubes, there would be no problem with doing so <ref>Mu’min, Shabīhsāzī, pp. 54-55</ref>.  

* Opposition to verse 70 of surah al-Isrā’: Based on this verse, God has honored human beings. Utilizing this method in human reproduction, however, has made it difficult to distinguish individuals and is therefore incompatible with honoring human beings <ref>Mu’min, Shabīhsāzī, p. 87</ref>. As it has been said, it is necessary to honor man from the very first moment of the formation of the embryo and it is not possible to separate a part of its body from it <ref>A group of authors, al-Fiqh al-Ṭibbī, p. 171</ref>.  

Shia jurists have varying statements about who is the mother of the human being resulting from embryo cloning. If the separated cell is implanted into the womb of the woman who owned the embryo, then that woman will undoubtedly be the mother of the cloned human being <ref> Ibid </ref>. But if the separated cell is not placed into the womb of the woman who owned the embryo, some jurists consider the woman who owns the womb and some consider the one owning the cell as the mother of the cloned human being <ref>Murtaḍavī, and Nurūzī, Barrisī-yi Ab‘ād-i Fiqhī-yi Hamzādsāzī va Badalsāzī-yi Insānī, p. 113</ref>. Sayyid Ali Sīstānī believes that as a matter of obligatory precaution (iḥtīyāṭ vājib), compromise should be reached in matters of inheritance, but in matters of maḥramīyyat (kinship), both women are considered mahram; because the owner of the egg is wife to the child’s father, and the owner of the womb is like the child’s mother <ref>Mu‘īnīfar, and Ḥājī-Alī, Nasab-i Ṭifl-i Shabīhsāzī Shudi dar Niẓām-i Ḥuqūqī-yi Islām, p. 115</ref>.  

Sayyid Abulqāsim Khū’ī and Mohammad Āṣif Muḥsinī consider the owner of the womb to be the legal mother of the cloned human being, citing verse 2 of surah al-Mujādalah. According to them, the legal mother cannot be identified merely by attribution of an egg to a woman. Rather, the child’s legal mother is the woman in whose womb the embryo develops and who gives birth to the child <ref>Sīstānī, Pursish va Pāsukh (questions and answers), Liqāḥ-i Maṣnū‘ī (in vitro fertilization), website of Ayatollah Sistani’s office</ref>. Sayyid Kāẓim Ḥā’irī, however, rejects this argument, believing that verse 2 of surah al-Mujādalah does not provide a devotional (ta‘abbudī) definition for mother. Therefore, those human beings who are born through embryo cloning are no different to twins or multiples who are born naturally and their mother is the woman who owns the egg, not the woman in whose womb the embryo grows <ref>Khū’ī, Masā’il va Rudūd, vol. 2, p. 320; Muḥsinī, al-Fiqh va Masā’il Ṭibbīyyah, vol. 1, p. 409</ref>. Not accepting the title of mother for the owner of the womb, Mohammad Mu’min, as well, believes that just as the laboratory devices in which the embryo develops cannot be known as the mother of the cloned human being, the woman whose womb is only used to grow the embryo cannot be called the mother of the cloned human being <ref>Ḥā’irī, Shabīhsāzī-yi Insān, pp. 39–40</ref>.  

According to Imam Khomeini, the criterion for motherhood is owning the egg and the woman from whom the egg is taken is the real and legitimate mother of the cloned human being <ref>Mu’min, Shabīhsāzī, p. 88</ref>. Mohammad Fāḍil Lankarānī <ref>Khomeini, Taḥrīr al-Vasīla, p. 990</ref>, Hossein-Ali Muntaẓirī <ref>Fāḍil Lankarānī, Aḥkām-i Pizishkī va Bīmārān, p. 96</ref>, Mohammad Mu’min <ref> Muntaẓirī, Aḥkām-i Pizishkī, p. 87</ref> and Sayyid Ali Khamenei [64] believe this as well. As Mohammad Mu’min has said, the essence of the embryo originates from the owner of the sperm and the owner of the egg, and its placement in the womb of another woman does not eliminate its genetic relationship <ref>Mu’min, Shabīhsāzī, p. 87</ref>.  

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