Infertility and assisted reproduction in the Muslim Middle East: social, religious, and resource considerations

Infertility and assisted reproduction in the Muslim Middle East: social, religious, and resource considerations

Inhorn, M.C.
Gürtin, Z.B.

English

20120000

This paper discusses the social, religious, and resource considerations around infertility and the provision of assisted reproductive technologies in the Muslim Middle East. Demonstrating the social need for IVF by millions of involuntarily childless Muslim men and women, as well as the religious permissibility of the technique according to Islam, we provide the positive examples of Turkey and Egypt regarding how resource concerns may be tackled and access to ARTs broadened. We end the paper by making a call for ARTs and infertility treatments to be incorporated into comprehensive reproductive care regimes, and for reproductive rights to encompass the facilitation as well as the control of fertility.

14.1

14.1;1.2

infertility [pri]; in vitro fertilization [pri]; Islamic ethics [pri]; reproductive technologies [pri]

developing countries; fatwas; reproductive health services; reproductive rights; resource allocation

Egypt [pri]; Turkey [pri]

Middle East

reproductive tourism; Shi'a; Sunni

European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), Social Study Group of the ESHRE Special Task Force; "Developing Countries and Infertility"; Istanbul, Turkey; 2-4 July 2012; Walking Egg npo; University of Amsterdam; World Health Organization

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Copyright Flemish Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology

m

27 refs

In: Gerrits, T.; Ombelet, W.; van Balen, F.; Vanderpoel, S., eds. Biomedical infertility care in poor resource countries: barriers, access, and ethics. Facts, Views and Vision in ObGyn. Monograph. Wetteren, Belgium: Universa Press, 2012: 24-29