Reproductive rights and health issues under Islamic law: towards enhancing medical law in the 21st century

Reproductive rights and health issues under Islamic law: towards enhancing medical law in the 21st century

Chiroma, Magaji
Saleh, Muhammad Musa
Babakano, Mohammed Aliyu

English

20200120

Reproductive rights and health are intertwined issues concerning women’s rights. Most of the legal regimes around the globe recognize their existence either explicitly or implicitly. Islamic law being one of the major legal regimes in the world has provided conditionally for the right to decide when and how to have children as well as the right to have access to health care services during prenatal and postnatal periods. Issues like managing infertility, controlling fertility, prenatal screening and genetic counselling are recognized as the most important aspects of reproductive rights and health in recent times, while their legal and ethical basis remain controversial phenomena within the realm of Islamic jurisprudence. However in this respect, medical personnel remain the key players in the realization and implementation of these issues. Hence they are required to act in accordance with extant laws in carrying out their duties; they should exhibit a high sense of respect for human life and provide a good standard of practice and care. This could be viable only when matters of this nature are streamlined and diligently observed from different perspectives. In view of this therefore the article, using doctrinal methodology, examined the issues associated with reproductive right and health under Islamic law with a view to exploring avenues on how they could be streamlined and effectively utilized to enhance the effectiveness of medical law in the contemporary society. In the end, the paper revealed the relevance of Islamic law to the prospects of medical law in the 21st century. Thus, it recommends for the application of Islamic law alongside conventional medical laws, especially within modern Muslim states.

14.1

14.1; 21.1; 1.2

human rights [pri]; Islamic ethics [pri]; reproductive rights [pri]; sharia [pri]

family planning; international aspects; Koran; Muslim religious scholars; Muslim world; reproductive health services; women's rights

Qur'an

3rd International Conference on Advances in Business and Law (ICABL); Dubai, UAE; 2019 November 23-24; University of Dubai - Dubai Business School

International Conference on Advances in Business and Law (ICABL). 2020 January 20; 3(1): 35-50

Copyright (c) 2019 International Conference on Advances in Business and Law (ICABL). Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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