Sharia scholars and modern biomedical advancements: what role for religious ethics in the genomic era?

Sharia scholars and modern biomedical advancements: what role for religious ethics in the genomic era?

Ghaly, Mohammed

English

20190000

This chapter provides an analysis of the possible role of Sharia, as envisaged by contemporary Muslim religious scholars, in the light of modern biomedical breakthroughs, especially in the era of genomics. The aim here is to highlight the views of these contemporary scholars and how they addressed questions related to the role of Sharia in the age of modernity, as exemplified by the breakthroughs in modern biomedical sciences. These breakthroughs have transformed much of what previously belonged to the category of "impossibilities" into that of "ordinaries” in our daily life. Against this background, we address questions like: How did contemporary Muslim religious scholars maintain a role for Sharia in these new fields, what are the nature and limits of this proposed role, and how far historical developments, including the advent of the genomic era, impacted their perception of this supposed role? The concluding part of this study is dedicated to raising some critical questions and remarks in addition to making proposals about how such questions can be addressed in future research.

2.1

2.1; 1.2; 15.1

biomedical technology [pri]; genomics [pri]; Islamic ethics [pri]; modern Muslim religious scholars [pri]; sharia [pri]

fiqh; genetic engineering; genetic research; ijtihad; religious ethics; secularism

International Islamic Fiqh Academy
Islamic Fiqh Academy
Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences
Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics

Islamic bioethics

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

c

QH438.7 .I85 2019

58 refs., 24 fns

9789004392137 (e-book)

In: Ghaly, Mohammed, ed. Islamic Ethics and the Genome
Question. Leiden: Brill Open, 2019: 15-46