Is surrogate motherhood permissible? If not, why not? Is it permissible to have a test tube baby?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Almost all Islamic scholars have stated up to now that it is permissible for the spouses that cannot have children through the normal way to have a child by inseminating the egg of the wife with the sperm of the husband outside and placing it in the uterus or by conveying the sperm of the husband into the uterus of the wife through microinjection; it is not permissible when these standards that are determined as test tube application are transgressed and a foreign element intervenes; that is, when one of the three elements, the sperm, egg and uterus, belongs to somebody other than the wife and husband. For it is obligatory for the sperm, egg and the uterus to belong to the married couple for a legitimate child in terms of the general principles of the religion of Islam. (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı: Presidency of Religious Affairs)

When surrogate motherhood is evaluated in terms of the law of legitimate marriage of the religion of Islam and the other rights related to it, if it is done by a woman who is not married to the man, it is not regarded legitimate and permissible due to several drawbacks of it. Some objectionable relationships and states may occur between the couple whose sperm and egg were inseminated outside and the child in the future. Some undesirable and even dangerous states that are not expected at the beginning but that can occur in the course of time in terms of the lineage of the child, monetary relations and love affairs that can lead to threats and even murders, can take place in the future. (Vecdi Akyüz)

From this viewpoint, it is not permissible for a mother to act as a surrogate mother even if the egg does not belong to her.

For more information, please click on the link given below;

Is it permissible to have a test tube baby? What are the conditions of having a test tube baby? Are the methods of determining the gender of the baby permissible?

Questions on Islam