Third-party reproductive assistance around the Mediterranean: comparing Sunni Egypt, Catholic Italy and multisectarian Lebanon

Abstract

The article examines religious and legal restrictions on third-party reproductive assistance in three Mediterranean countries: Sunni Egypt, Catholic Italy and multisectarian Lebanon. In Egypt, assisted reproduction treatments are permitted, but third parties are banned, as in the rest of the Sunni Islamic world. Italy became similar to Egypt with a 2004 law ending third-party reproductive assistance. In multisectarian Lebanon, however, the Sunni/Catholic ban on third-party reproductive assistance has been lifted, because of Shia rulings emanating from Iran. Today, third-party reproductive assistance is provided in Lebanon to both Muslims and Christians, unlike in neighbouring Egypt and Italy. Such comparisons point to the need for understanding the complex interactions between law, religion, local moralities and reproductive practices for global bioethics.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Fertility “Tourism”: Examples from Global Dubai and the Ivy League

“…Interviews were conducted in either English or Arabic, depending on research subjects' preferences, and lasted from one-half to three hours. In addition, the authors undertook extensive research on the various legal and religious precedents affecting ART practice in these settings (Inhorn and Patrizio 2009;Inhorn, Patrizio, and Serour 2010;Inhorn and Shrivastav 2010).…”

Genetic Gestational Surrogacy: Hope for Muslims

“…Destruction of genealogical lineage (especially patrilineal) may have two way devastating interference for kinship and inheritance 5 . Third-party donation is difficult in Islam as it destroys a child's lineage, which may have psychologically suffering for the child in one hand.…”

“…They consider the union of ova/sperm other than wife/ husband is as adultery. According to Islamic jurisprudence, legal marriage is the only precept for the procreation and a child is illegitimate if marriage is null and void 5 . Therefore third party reproduction is challenging in Islam.…”

Procreative tourism: debating the meaning of cross-border reproductive care in the 21st century

“…Turkey, on the other hand, has enacted the world's toughest IVF law, which bans reproductive tourism (especially to 'permissive' Cyprus) for its citizens [19]. Although largely symbolic and unenforceable, the 2010 Turkish law legally instantiates the religious ban on gamete donation, which is in force throughout the Sunni Islamic world, spanning from Morocco to Malaysia [20]. Turkey may be the first country to legally ban reproductive tourism, but other Muslim countries may eventually follow suit.…”