Analyzing Islamic Jurists' Viewpoints About Abortion, Concerning Health of Mother and Fetus

Subject Areas : Private law

nasrin Fatahi ¹ , mohammad mousavi moghadam ² , maryam khademi ³

1 - دانشگاه قم
2 - دانشگاه تهران
3 - دانشگاه قم

Received: 2017-05-02 Accepted : 2017-05-02 Published : 2017-05-02

Keywords: abortion, fetus, Lawfulness, Breathing the Spirit, prohibition,

Abstract :

Abortion is a major social problem in the present time. If pregnancy is life-threatening for mother or fetus, can abortion be allowed? Sunni Islamic jurisprudents have different opinions about abortion before breathing spirit, but all of them believe that it is normally unlawful after breathing the spirit. Imamiyeh Islamic jurisprudents believe that abortion without any reason is unlawful both before and after breathing the spirit. Most Islamic jurisprudents allow abortion before as well as after breathing the spirit if pregnancy is life-threatening for mother. If the fetus is malformed and its maintenance causes distress and constriction, some of the Sunni and Imamiyeh Islamic jurisprudents allow its abortion only before breathing the spirit.