Is surrogacy haram?

Some women cannot carry a pregnancy: a woman born without a womb, a woman whose womb was removed to save her from cancer, or a woman whose heart could not survive a pregnancy. Her eggs may be healthy, and her husband’s sperm too, yet no pregnancy can grow inside her. For such couples, a surrogate who carries their embryo may be the only way to hold their own child. The scholars differ on surrogacy. The major Sunni fiqh councils forbid it, and many Shia jurists permit gestational surrogacy. The stronger view, in mercy to these families, permits gestational surrogacy when the surrogate consents freely, is treated fairly, and is honored, and when the child’s parentage is clear.

What is surrogacy?

In gestational surrogacy a married couple’s egg and sperm are joined through IVF, and the embryo is placed in the womb of another woman, who carries the pregnancy and gives birth. The child is genetically the couple’s. In traditional surrogacy the surrogate’s own egg is used, so she is also the genetic mother. The second form adds the separate question of egg donation, discussed in Is IVF haram?, and this answer concerns mainly the first.

Why do Sunni fiqh councils forbid surrogacy?

In October 1986 the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, meeting in Amman, examined seven methods of assisted reproduction. It permitted IVF and insemination with a husband and wife’s own gametes in the wife’s own womb. In Resolution 16 it forbade, among others, placing a couple’s embryo in “the womb of a volunteer woman” or in the womb of the husband’s other wife, because of “the confusion of parenthoods” and “loss of motherhood.” In 1990 it repeated that “it is prohibited to inseminate fertilized eggs into another woman” (Resolution 55). Most Sunni scholars, in the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafiʿi, and Hanbali schools, follow these rulings.

Their deepest concern is the child’s right to know who his mother is. Many cite the Quran’s words about the men who declared their wives to be like their mothers: “their mothers are only those who gave birth to them” (58:2). If birth makes a mother, they reason, a surrogate would be the mother, and the woman whose egg formed the child would be left with no recognized bond. They also fear that wombs will be rented from poor women. Muslims who follow these councils act on serious scholarship, and their concern for children and for women deserves respect.

Why do many Shia jurists permit gestational surrogacy?

Many Jaʿfari jurists reached a different conclusion, though some Shia jurists forbid it. Many Shia authorities permit placing a married couple’s embryo in another woman’s womb, holding that the child’s lineage follows the genetic parents. Gestational surrogacy is practiced in Iran under medical supervision, alongside the donor programs that Iranian law has regulated since 2003. This is a recognized ijtihād within the tradition (What is the difference between Sunni and Shia Islam?).

What is the stronger view?

The view that best fits the Quran’s mercy permits gestational surrogacy, for four reasons.

• Lineage is clear. The child’s father and mother are a married couple known to everyone, and careful clinics and legal orders record the child’s parentage from birth. The confusion of lineage the councils feared does not arise.
• The verse of ẓihār concerns another question. Sūrat al-Mujādila answers men who tried to turn their wives into “mothers” with a word. It denies that a declaration can make a mother; it does not address an embryo carried by another woman, which no one in that age could imagine.
• The Quran knows more than one kind of motherhood. It names the women who nursed a child as that child’s mothers:

وَأُمَّهَٰتُكُمُ ٱلَّـٰتِيٓ أَرۡضَعۡنَكُمۡ وَأَخَوَٰتُكُم مِّنَ ٱلرَّضَٰعَةِ

“And your mothers who nursed you, and your sisters through nursing.”

Quran 4:23

Islamic law built a whole set of rulings on this bond. A woman who carries a child through nine months gives at least as much of her body as one who nurses it for two years, and her bond can be honored in the same way.

• Mercy to the childless. Protecting lineage and family (ḥifẓ al-nasl) is an objective of the sharia, and helping a couple who cannot carry a pregnancy to have their own child serves it.

The permission comes with firm conditions. The surrogate must choose freely, without pressure from poverty or family. Her health must be protected, her expenses paid, and her care continued after birth. The arrangement must follow the law of the country, and many countries restrict commercial surrogacy to prevent the exploitation of poor women.

How should the surrogate be honored?

The Prophet ﷺ himself had milk mothers. He named Thuwayba as the woman who nursed him, and he treated the bond as real kinship, declining a marriage because of it (Sahih al-Bukhari 5101). A child born through surrogacy may be raised to know and respect the woman who carried him, and families can keep a bond of gratitude with her for life.

What other paths are open?

Couples who follow the Sunni councils may seek IVF with their own embryo in the wife’s own womb where that is possible, or freeze eggs for later (Is egg freezing allowed in Islam?). Many families also welcome a child through kafāla, the Islamic form of fostering (Can Muslims adopt a child?). Questions about ending a pregnancy are separate and are answered in Is abortion haram?

A closing duʿāʾ

Abraham (peace be upon him), old and still without a child, prayed:

رَبِّ هَبۡ لِي مِنَ ٱلصَّـٰلِحِينَ

“My Lord, grant me a child who is among the righteous.”

Quran 37:100

May Allah answer every couple who calls on Him with that prayer, and bless every woman who helps another family hold its child.