Abstract
Technological advances in medicine from assisted reproduction to CRISPR gene editing, xenotransplantation and artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare raise complex ethical, legal and theological questions for Muslim communities and jurists.Islamic bioethics draws on scriptural sources, the usul al-fiqhi.e. the methodology of jurisprudence and maqasid al-shariah i.e. the objectives of Islamic law, to deliberate permissibility, harm/benefit and social policy. This paper maps the conceptual tools used by Muslim jurists to engage new technologies, analyses debates around six contemporary technologies such as assisted reproductive technologies, genetic editing, organ transplantation and death determination, xenotransplantation, biobanks or data privacy and AI in healthcare, and proposes a pragmatic framework for policy and fatwa making that balances scientific evidence, maqasid reasoning and procedural safeguards. The paper concludes with recommendations for institutionalising plural deliberation, improving clinical guidance and protecting vulnerable groups while enabling beneficial research.
Introduction
Modern biomedical and information technologies pose unprecedented possibilities and risks. For Muslim communities, the encounter between modern biomedicine and Islamic legal-ethical thought is mediated by centuries-old methodology but must respond to novel modalities that the classical jurists could not foresee. Islamic bioethics therefore operates at the intersection of textual exegesis, juristic analogy i.e. qiyas and principle-based reasoning i.e. maqasidand maxims, together with attention to public interest i.e. maslahahand prevention of harm i.e. darar. This paper asks:
- What conceptual resources does Muslim law bring to technological bioethics?
- How have these resources been deployed in recent debates about key technologies?
- What procedural and substantive recommendations can reconcile religious legitimacy with scientific safety and human rights?
The analysis draws on leading scholarship in Islamic bioethics and recent case literature on gene editing, transplantation and AI.[1]
[1]Abdulaziz A Sachedina, Islamic Biomedical Ethics: Principles and Application (Oxford University Press 2009) ch 1 (on the jurisprudential method and maqasid)