The ruling on aborting a fetus that carries a hereditary disease
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A woman says she has given birth twice, and the child would die after forty-five days. The doctors told her that this disease is rare, and the child dies at this time, after forty-five days. She says she is now in her fourth month of pregnancy. The doctors said they will take a sample from the fetus, and if it is found to carry the same disease, they will abort it. What should she do? Should she abort it, or should she be patient?
Answer:
No, it is not permissible to abort it. Once the soul has been breathed into it, it is not permissible to abort it, because it is the killing of a soul, and this is not permissible. She should place her reliance on Allah and entrust the matter to Allah. If the child lives, praise be to Allah, and if it dies, she should complain to Allah. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A woman says she has given birth twice, and the child would die after forty-five days. The doctors told her that this disease is rare, and the child dies at this time, after forty-five days. She says she is now in her fourth month of pregnancy. The doctors said they will take a sample from the fetus, and if it is found to carry the same disease, they will abort it. What should she do? Should she abort it, or should she be patient?
Answer:
No, it is not permissible to abort it. Once the soul has been breathed into it, it is not permissible to abort it, because it is the killing of a soul, and this is not permissible. She should place her reliance on Allah and entrust the matter to Allah. If the child lives, praise be to Allah, and if it dies, she should complain to Allah. Yes.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، الباب الثاني في ذكر حقيقة مرض القلب — islamhouse.com (58:27)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.