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Fatwa CenterNo objection to aborting a dead fetus
Question
A few months ago I was pregnant and when my first scan came I was told that foetus had no heartbeat but physically I was well and had no signs of miscarriage. The hospital gave me no option but to have the pregnancy cleared. But we decided to wait for a while. But nothing happened and we requested a second scan. That to showed no heart beat and then two weeks later after one more scan we had to take up one of the options the hospital had given us. Were we right in doing this according to Islam? Why?
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions. If your saying: "the foetus had no heart beat" means that the fetus was actually dead and its death was confirmed then there is no objection to your aborting it. If it was alive but it is aborted due to the fear of deformity or due to a presumed death after its birth, in such cases abortion is strictly forbidden. All Muslim scholars are agreed that aborting a fetus after the soul was breathed into its body is forbidden unless the life of the mother is endangered. Therefore, if the abortion took place after the soul had already been breathed into the fetus then the mother and those who cooperated with her committed a major sin. They all should seek forgiveness from Allah; we hope Allah will accept their repentance. Moreover, the mother and whoever cooperated with her in aborting a soul should pay the blood money of the fetus as expiation. The value of the blood money of a fetus is one tenth of the value of the blood money of its mother. This blood money is distributed among the heirs of the fetus with the exception of the mother since a killer does not inherit from the killed one (the victim). Imam Malik reported in his book 'al-Muatta': The blood money of a fetus is a slave or a slave-girl. The value of a slave is fifty Dinars and it is equal to one tenth of the blood money of his mother. In addition, everyone who cooperated in killing a fetus should pay an expiation that is freeing one believing slave or fasting two months consecutively. Allah knows best.
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