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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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What is the ruling on donating organs such as the heart and the kidney?

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The questioner : The questioner asks: Is it permissible to donate organs such as the heart and the kidney?

The Shaykh : If a person has a mesh in his heart, what is this talk? After he dies, he donates his heart? No, if the heart dies, that is the end. In any case, the kidney is known, the liver is not known. Is it permissible for a person to donate one of his organs to another, such as a kidney? Leave the heart and let it stay in its place, man. Well, the answer is no, it is not permissible for a person to donate any of his organs to anyone, because your body is a trust with you. If it is not permissible to cut off a finger, how can it be permissible for a kidney? If he says, "I want to save the life of this man who needs a kidney," we say: Do you know for certain that his body will accept this kidney? The answer is no, certainty is not possible, but it may be probable to ninety-nine percent, but as long as there is one percent that the body will not accept it, that is sufficient. Then, if you donate the kidney, you have harmed yourself. How so? We know that the All-Knowing Creator, Mighty and Majestic, did not create the kidneys in vain, but to balance the body and balance the outlets for water waste. Because the kidney is like a filter for water. It filters the water and separates the bad, which goes down to the bladder, and the beneficial part is distributed in the blood. So if the second one did not have a great benefit, its creation would have been in vain. Thirdly, if a person donates a kidney and the remaining one is affected by something, will he die or not?
He will die, and he will be the cause of his own destruction. As for the other sick person, we say:
And for every nation is a [specified] term. So when their time has come, they will not remain behind an hour, nor will they precede [it].وَلِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ أَجَلٌ فَإِذَا جَاءَ أَجَلُهُمْ لَا يَسْتَأْخِرُونَ سَاعَةً وَلَا يَسْتَقْدِمُونَ
[Al-A'raf 7:34]
And whoever does not die today will die tomorrow. So it is not permissible for a person to donate a kidney. What next? The heart is not an option, people. The heart is not a place for this, or donating anything from his body, because if he does that, he has harmed himself and wasted the trust that Allah placed upon him. And as for his companion, if Allah has decreed death for him, perhaps death is better for him. And in the hadith: O Allah,
keep me alive so long as You know that living is good for me and cause me to die when You know that death is better for meأحيني إذا علمت الحياة خيرا لي وتوفني إذا علمت الوفاة خيرا لي
Sunan an-Nasa'i 1306Hasan (Darussalam)
. Also, I tell you, it has reached us that in some polytheistic lands, they snatch children, yes, and they cut open their bellies and take the organs, the liver and the kidneys, and this is a great harm. Therefore, yes, also we have heard that some people hasten the death of the sick person to take his organs and say, "He died a brain death, come on, give the kidney, give the liver, and give the heart," according to our brother's opinion, but it is not an option. I do not know about this thing, so in any case, the summary, my brothers, is that I see that it is forbidden to donate any organ from his organs. As for donating blood, there is nothing wrong with it, yes. Because when blood is drawn from a person, blood remains in its place immediately, whereas an organ is not replaced by an organ. Yes.
Source قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 8 - 41- دروس وفتاوى المسجد الحرام للعام 1419 هـ - الدرس الثامن - الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين — youtube.com (54:48)

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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