REFLECTIONS: Organ Donation in Islam
In October of this year, an event was held to promote organ donation within the South Asian community in Mississauga. The reason behind the drive was that members of the South Asian community are less likely to donate their organs compared to the national average. In this issue, we explore the question of organ donation, as well as why it is Haram to donate one’s organs after death.
What’s wrong about this approach to organ donation?
“Most religions actually do allow organ and tissues donations, but these are just the taboos created by people, because most of these religions are centuries old, so people have formed their own superstitions.”
This perspective comes from a secular way of thinking, and contradicts the way Islam views life, as Islam recognizes spiritual values in all areas of life. The sanctity of the dead body cannot be violated for any reason in Islam.
The other result of the secular viewpoint is that the primary motivation for promoting organ donation is cost saving. We live in a Capitalist society that is shaped by the monetary interests of the elites. Consequently, it should be no surprise that a big motivation behind organ donation campaigns is the cost saving to the health care system, and therefore reducing the burden on the government’s budget.
Transfer of organs during the lifetime of the donor
It is allowed for a person during his life to donate a non-vital organ – such as a kidney or skin tissue – of an individual, with his consent, to another person who needs the donated organ. This is because a person has Islamic legal (Shar’iee) authority over his organs while he is alive. The evidence for this is if a person’s limb is severed (through an accident, for example) by another person, the victim can take the Diya (blood money), or he can forgive the Diya; the fact that he is allowed to forgive the Diya means that he owns the Diya and, therefore, he owns the organ when he donates its Diya. The fact that a person owns his organs means that he can donate his non-vital organs to someone else who needs them. Allah (swt) has allowed people to forgive the Qisas and the Diya; He (swt) said:
“But if the offender is pardoned by the victim’s guardian, then blood-money should be decided fairly, and payment should be made courteously. This is a concession and a mercy from your Lord.” [2:178]
Donating organs while someone is alive
It is a requirement for somebody who is donating an organ during his lifetime that the organ should not be vital for his own life; his life must not depend on it, such as his heart, or liver. This is so because donating such an organ will cause death to that person, and he will be killing himself, and it is not allowed for a person to kill himself, or to consent to somebody else killing him.
Allah (swt) said:
“Do not kill yourselves.” [4:29]
And He (swt) said:
“And do not take a human life, which has been made sacred by Allah, except with legal right.” [17: 33]
This includes both killing others as well as killing one’s self. The Messenger of Allah (saw) said:
'Whoever kills himself with a tool, Allah will punish him with that tool in hellfire.”[Muslim]
In another narration:
“Any person who throws himself from a mountain and kills himself is in Hellfire.”[Al-Bukhari]
Donating organs after death
The ruling concerning the donation of organs of a person after his death to another person differs from the ruling of donating the organ during the life of the donor. In order to determine the ruling about donating organs just after life ends, we need to first know the ruling on who owns the dead body, the ruling on the sanctity of the dead person, and the ruling of necessity (Dharoora).
As for the ruling concerning the ownership of the body after the person’s death, the body is not owned by any one – including the deceased person himself. Therefore, when the person dies, everything that he used to own or have authority over is now out of his authority or domain, including the person’s wealth, body, and family. For example, when it comes to inheritance, one loses all authority over their inheritance after death except for the explicit permission from Allah (swt) that a person can donate a maximum of one-third of their wealth and nothing more, as the Prophet (saw) said:
“A third (of the inheritance can be donated), and a third is much.” [Muslim]
When it comes to the human body, there is no such permission. Therefore, the dead person has no control or authority over his body after death, which means he cannot donate any of his organs, and he cannot put it in his will. Thus, it is not allowed to donate one’s organs after death nor include it as part of one’s will.
What about the family of the deceased? Do they not have authority? The answer is they hold no ownership or authority over the body after death either, and therefore they cannot donate either. In order to give Sadaqa (charity), for example, one must first own the wealth before being able to donate it, and in the case of the body of a deceased relative, Allah (swt) did not give the heirs ownership over the body, and therefore they do not have the right to use the body as they wish.
As for the sacredness of the dead body or harming it, Allah (swt) has made the sacredness of the dead equal to that of the living. He (swt) made it forbidden to violate the sanctity of the dead body or harm it, as is the case when he is alive. A’isha, the mother of the believers, may Allah bless her, narrated that the Prophet of Allah (saw) said:
“Breaking a bone of a dead person is like breaking it when he is alive.” [Ahmad]
‘Amir ibn Hazm al-Ansari said:
“The Messenger of Allah (saw) saw me leaning on a grave and said: ‘Do not harm the owner of the grave’.” [Ahmad]
And in another narration, he (saw) said:
“For someone to sit on a burning coal and burn one’s self is better for him than to sit on a grave.” [Muslim]
These Ahadith clearly show that the dead have sanctity like that of the living. These narrations also show that violating the sanctity of the dead body or hurting it is like violating the living body and harming it, and, as it is not allowed for anyone to transgress against the living person by cutting open his stomach, severing his neck, taking out his eye, or breaking his bone, similarly it is not permissible to do this to the dead.
In addition to this, to remove the eye of the dead person, or to cut him open to remove his heart, kidney, liver, or lungs, in order to transfer it to another person, this is considered mutilation of the dead body, and Islam has explicitly forbidden mutilation of dead bodies. ‘Abdullah ibn Zaid al-Ansari, may Allah be pleased with him said:
“The Prophet of Allah peace be upon him prohibited looting and disfiguring” [Al-Bukhari]
Is this not a case of necessity?
When looking at this issue, some may believe it is Halal to desecrate the body of the dead due to the concept of necessity (Dharoora). However, before accepting such a view, we need to carefully examine this claim first.
In the case of organ transfer, these organs are either vital ones, by which a life can be saved to the best of one’s knowledge, such as the heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs; or they are non-vital organs, which include the eyes, the second kidney for the one who has a working kidney, the hand, the leg, and the like.
For the non-vital organs that life does not depend on, the issue of necessity does not apply here; as such organs are not necessary for life.
As for the case of vital organs, the case of necessity also does not apply for two reasons: The first is that transplanting organs may or may not save a life, in that saving a life through organ donation is not guaranteed, which is in contrast with when someone eats Haram meat to stave off starvation, it will definitely save their life. With organ donation, saving the life may occur or it may not occur. Due to this doubtfulness, the issue of necessity cannot be applied.
The second reason is that the issue of violating the dead body is not something that can simply be overlooked when attempt to make the case that organ donation is like eating Haram meat. For example, could a person kill his fellow traveler and eat him because he was going to starve to death (in the name of necessity)? Of course not; that would be murder. Similarly, the Messenger of Allah (saw) explained to us that violating the sanctity of the dead body is like violating a living body, and therefore the issue of necessity cannot be applied.
“And We have sent down to you the Book as an explanation of everything, a guidance, a mercy, and glad-tidings for those who submitted themselves to Islam.” [16:89]
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