PRESENTED BY SAIRA FATIMA SABAHAT MEHMOOD SANA USMAN MSc 4 (2018-2020) Department of MicroBiology & Molecular Genetics University of the Punjab Lahore, Pakistan

1. Ethical issues in prenatal
diagnosis in Islam,
Christianity and Hinduism
PRESENTED BY
SAIRA FATIMA
SABAHAT MEHMOOD
SANA USMAN
MSc 4
2018-2020
Department of MicroBiology & Molecular Genetics
University of the Punjab
Lahore, Pakistan
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2. What is prenatal diagnosis
 Prenatal diagnosis means diagnosis before birth
 Prenatal testing consists of prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis
 Consist of two methods
 Invasive
 Non invasive
 detect problems such as
 Chromosomal abnormalities , neural tube defect, down syndrome and
other genetic defects
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3. Ethical issues
 PND raises a number of important ethical issues,
 Some related to testing techniques and others pregnancy issues
 These issues are most effectively addressed in the context of a broader
understanding because we have a dual obligations,
 Women health
 fetus health
 More testing is beneficial for women but not for child particularly if the
information provided enhances her ability to make sound decision
about reproductive matter.
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4. Cont:
 Results limits the woman’s sense of control over the decision
made about her pregnancy.
 It can also provide an opportunity for third parties to become
involved in, private matter.
 It is disturbed structural functionalism because it is a technology
that can be misused and lead to the termination of pregnancy or
a loss in one of the parts of society.
 Disability rights disturbed.
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5. Cont:
 Where termination of pregnancy needed it may raise many difficult
issues for individual and families, such as,
 Wanted pregnancy
 many people attribute moral status at mid-trimester and at viability
 Parents who have already viewed the fetus on ultrasound emotionally
attached with fetus.
 Non-medical use of prenatal diagnosis
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6. Cont:
 Decision to terminate or continue pregnancy based on prenatal
diagnostic findings is never an easy.
 Social justice affected.
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7. Religious point of view
 Various religions exist in this world all have different point of view about
PND here we discuss only three
 Islam
 Christianity
 Hinduism
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8. Ethical issues associated
with prenatal diagnosis in
Islam
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9. Islam:
 According to various Muslim scholar , terminating pregnancy before
the ensoulment is allowed when the life of the mother is in danger, or
when the fetus has a serious anomaly.
 From the Islamic perspective, ensoulment is an important moment in
pregnancy
 At this point the fetus is seen as a fully-fledged person.
 But problem is that different Muslims scholars have different opinions
about timing of ensoulment period
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10. Timings of ensoulment
 majority of Islamic theologians and legal experts agree that
the ensoulment takes place on the 120th day (17 weeks and one day)
after conception.
 A small minority of Islamic scholars believes it takes place on the
40th day after conception
 Termination after ensoulment considered crime
 But if mother health effected Islam not compromised
 Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 21/452.
 Allowed in case of mother health
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11. Serious abnormalities
 If fetus have serious abnormalities like thalassemia termination allowed
according to this fatwa
 In 1990, Fatwa Number 4 by the Islamic jurisprudence council of Makah
al Mukaramah officially confirmed the permissibility of termination of
pregnancy in cases of serious anomalies before the 120th day after
conception.
 But women choice also imp
 Scale of serious abnormalities is also imp
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12. Abortion in case of handicap
 There should be a necessary reason for doing so, such as handicap or
deformity which is discovered in the pregnancy, or a risk to the mother.
At the same time, if a person can be patient and put his trust in Allah,
that will be better for him with his Lord.
 Shaykh Sa’d al-Humayd
 Doctors misconceptions
 Allah is Most Wise in all that He creates and decrees, may He be
glorified and exalted.
 Materialistic nature
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13. Cont:
 “And it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that
you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know”
[Al-Baqarah 2:216]
 it may be that you dislike a thing and Allah brings through it a great
deal of good”
[al-Nisa’ 4:19]
 According to Hazrat Muhammad PBUH
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14. Cont:
 How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for all his affairs are good,
and that applies to no one but the believer. If something good happens
to him he gives thanks and that is good for him, and if something bad
happens to him he bears it with patience and that is good for him.”
Narrated by Muslim, 2999.
 It is not permissible to abort the foetus because of the deformity Allah
may heal the fetus during the remainder of the pregnancy, and it may
be born normal and healthy, as has happened to many people.
Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 21/440.
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15. Cont:
 Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 21/250-251.
 Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 21/249.
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16. Ruling of abortion timing
 It is not permissible to abort a pregnancy at any stage unless there is a
genuine reason, and within very precise limits
 Before ensoulment permissible
 It is not permissible to abort a pregnancy when it is an ‘alaqah (clot) or
mudghah
 After the third stage, and after four months have passed, it is not
permissible to abort the pregnancy
 The hadith was narrated by Imaam Ahmad in his Musnad with a saheeh
isnaad. (al-Musnad, 3/489)
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17. Different Fiqh
 Hanafi madhhb lenient about in first trimester
 Malkies very strict they only allow abortion’ ’there is an extreme risk to
the mother health
 Safi's and humbli have different opinions vary from scholars to scholars
mostly not allowed
 According to Quran (Al-Israa 31)
Do not kill your children for fear of poverty, we provide for them and
for you, indeed their killing is ever a great sin.
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18. Ethical issues associated
with prenatal diagnosis in
Christianity
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19. Christianity:
 For Christians, the practice of prenatal diagnosis (PND) is ethically problematic.
 Western ethics has been traditionally based on Judeo-Christian values.
 There are many procedures involved in prenatal genetic screening and diagnosis and the subsequent
management pathways that need to be considered carefully from a biblical framework. Undoubtedly,
the current ethical climate in midwives care will create dilemmas for many Christian doctors.
 As scripture is silent on many issues that face us in the 21st century, ethical principles need to be
derived.
SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES FOR PRENATAL ETHICS:
 For Christians, ethics starts in the community of faith where it can be grounded in worship and the fruit of the
Spirit at work among the people of God. God’s truth extends beyond the church.
 For Christian doctors, the doctrine of man being made in the image of God will have an impact on these
decisions.
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20. Bible also prohibit the abortion if any deformity detected in fetus as it is mentioned:
"Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God
has God made mankind."(GENESIS 9:6)
Furthermore,
“And now the LORD says-- he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob
back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my
has been my strength”(Isaiah 49:5).
Since the moment of formation in the womb of the mother God has been involved. Similarly,
Abortifacient is a substance that induces abortion. It is not considered as a Christian family
planning method weather it is legal or illegal. (many feminist organization demanding abortion
as a legal practice coz they believe they have right on their body which is against their scripture)
Abnormalities can exist from the beginning of human development and we cannot always repair
the damage. But our understanding allows us to place value on all human beings, not because of
who or what they are, or what they can do, but because of the God in whose image they are made.
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21. “Genesis teaches us that human beings were made in the image of God”
(Genesis 1:26–27).
 Christianity believes in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity(the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ),
and the Holy Spirit—as "one God in three Divine persons)
We are not autonomous individuals in this sense, and where possible family members beyond
the mother alone should be involved in healthcare decision making. This will be influenced by
our biblical view of parenthood, which sees:
children as a gift from God to be gratefully received, rather than a product of manufacture
which can be rejected when imperfect (Psalms127:3–5).
We need to remember that God has already redeemed us through the saving work of Christ
Jesus, and that all creation will one day be free from suffering (Revelation 21: 4).
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22. Christians have been given a mandate to side with the oppressed, the needy and the
vulnerable. This was part of Jesus’s manifesto (Luke 4:18–19).
The care of orphans, widows, aliens and the poor is a recurring theme in the Old
Testament (Isaiah 10:8).
 This mandate calls us to extend care to the fetus in its vulnerable state, and to
offer prenatal diagnosis and treatment where indicated.
 The reality of our lives is the fallness of our world, which disrupts all relationships,
even at the level of chromosomes and genes.
 Parents will continue to demand prenatal genetic testing, either for knowledge or
decision making regarding the continuation or discontinuation of pregnancy.
 According to Christianity, if any deformity detected in fetus endanger the life of
mother then it is allowed otherwise it is not allowed……..
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23. Ethical issues associated
with prenatal diagnosis in
Hinduism
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24. Hinduism:
ReplyForward
Prenatal diagnosis is not allowed in Hinduism due to:
 In India most of the people use prenatal screening for sex selection therefore once they
know the child's gender
if it is girl then they abort so total 48.1 million pregnancy were aborted by knowing the sex of
the child so because
of these reasons prenatal diagnosis is not Allowed in Hinduism.
 15.6 Million Abortion were performed in 2019 on India due to prenatal screening.
In practice, however, abortion is practiced in Hindu culture in India, because the religious ban
on abortion is sometimes overruled by the cultural preference for sons. This can lead to
abortion to prevent the birth of girl
babies, which is called 'female fetus'.
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25. When considering abortion, the Hindu way is to choose the action that will do least harm to
all involved: the mother and father, the fetus and society.
Hinduism is therefore generally opposed to abortion except where it is necessary to save
the mother's life.
Classical Hindu texts are strongly opposed to abortion:
one text compares abortion to the killing of a priest
another text considers abortion a worse sin than killing one's parents
another text says that a woman who aborts her child will lose her caste
Traditional Hinduism and many modern Hindus also see abortion as a breach of the duty to
produce children in order to continue the family and produce new members of society.
Many Hindus regard the production of offspring as a 'public duty', not simply an 'individual
expression of personal choice' (see Lipner, "The classical Hindu view on abortion and the
moral status of the unborn" 1989)
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26. The status of the fetus in Hinduism:
• The soul and the matter which form the fetus are considered by many Hindus to be joined
together from conception.
• According to the doctrine of reincarnation a fetus is not developing into a person, but is a
person from a very early stage. It contains a reborn soul and should be treated
• By the ninth month the fetus has achieved very substantial awareness.
According to the Garbha Upanishad, the soul remembers its past lives during the last month
fetus spends in the womb (these memories are destroyed during the trauma of birth).
The Mahabharata refers to a child learning from its father while in the womb.
The status of the fetus in Hinduism:
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27. The doctrine of reincarnation, which sees life as a repeating cycle of birth, death and
rebirth, is basic to Hindu thinking.
The doctrine of reincarnation can be used to make a strong case against abortion:
 If a fetus is aborted, the soul within it suffers a major karmic setback. It is deprived of the
opportunities its potential human existence would have given it to earn good karma,
and is returned immediately to the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Thus abortion
hinders a soul's spiritual progress.
 Reincarnation can also be used to make a case that abortion should be permitted.
Under the doctrine of reincarnation, abortion only deprives the soul of one of many
births that it will have.
 The consequences of abortion in the framework of reincarnation are therefore not as
bad as they are in those religions where a soul gets only one chance to be born and
where abortion deprives the soul of all possibility of life.
Abortion and reincarnation
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28. Abortion and non-violencebortion and n
Ahimsa - non-violence - teaches that it is wrong not only to kill living
beings, but to also to kill embryos.
Hindus believe that all life is sacred, to be loved and revered, and
practice ahimsa or non-violence. All life is sacred because all creatures
manifestations of the Supreme Being.
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29. Thank you
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