Islamic Bioethical Perspectives on Prenatal Diagnosis and Termination of Pregnancy

Today, medical advances have given rise to several dilemmas at the beginning of life. In the West, the examination of moral approaches to issues at the beginning of life starts mainly from secular Western/Christian bioethical positions, while normative Islamic positions are much less visible and comparatively under-researched. To date, hardly any attention is paid to Islamic ethical frameworks discussing prenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy. This emerging field of study is indeed still in its embryonic phase. This study is meant to fill in glaring gaps in modern scholarship by investigating and tackling the ethical challenges found at the beginning of life through approaches and analytical tools rooted in the Islamic tradition. The basis of this research project is the necessity to study, assess and develop normative Islamic bioethical discourses on ethical issues at the beginning of life. With this project we aim to reach a contextualised normative position on Islamic ethics and prenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy that takes into account contemporary Western pluralistic society with its strong ethical, legal and philosophical traditions, but also honours the specificity of and the diversity within the Islamic tradition and worldview.