CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE RIGHT OF ARTIFICIALY INSEMINATED CHILD TO INHERIT UNDER ISLAMIC LAW

CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE RIGHT OF ARTIFICIALY INSEMINATED CHILD TO INHERIT UNDER ISLAMIC LAW
 
CHAPTER 1
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The need for bearing children, feeding them, cuddling them, rearing them, participating in their future and sharing their dreams is immense; it is a basic human need, a necessity. It has been so since the birth of humanity, and will always be so. In a country like Pakistan, or any country for that matter, the lack of children can lead to broken homes, and up until the time the home is finally broken up the wife faces a constant threat of divorce. Even if divorce is not imminent, the prospect of becoming the neglected second wife of a Muslim husband is always present, not to speak of the constant bickering and ultimate miserable relationship to which divorce might be preferable. For these disillusioned parents, especially depressed wives, modern technology offers a ray of hope, just as it has revolutionized human life in almost every other area including health and fitness.
For these couples or women, assisted reproductive technology is an answer to their prayers and dwindling hopes. Their hopes are dashed, however, when a large group of Muslim scholars point out to them that this technology is the very foundation of sin, and employing it for the birth of a child will open the very gates of hell for them.[1] If an unfortunate couple recovers from the onslaught of these scholars, they are confronted by a growing body of Muslim doctors who are eager to develop Islamic bioethics. Some of these doctors are even more enthusiastic in branding this reproductive technology as sinful and they confine the permitted form of technology to cases that may not even need the option granted to them by Islamic bioethics, as nature may take over and give them a child in the natural way. It is not polite to point out who
[1] See, e.g., a more systematic and logical  ruling issued by Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari, Darul Iftaa, Leicester, UK: “What is the Islamic  position on surrogate motherhood?” (available at http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=3622&CATE=95, accessed March 5, 2014).