Donating organs for medical research
17-9-2003 | IslamWeb
Question:
What is the view of Islam in donating your organs after your death for health experimental research? All drivers license in the US now have a box on their forms and many people, including my immediate family have agreed to donate their organs to medical research.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
It is an Islamic principle that a Muslim's life, hounour, and whatever concerns him, are inviolable. This is one of the major basics of the Islamic Religion. A Muslim's inviolability is reserved right whether during his life or after his death. The Prophet said, Breaking a dead man's bone is like breaking it when he is alive. [Abu Dawood and Ibn Majah]
Commenting on this Hadith, Ibn Hajar 
said: What can be deduced from this Hadith is that a Muslim's inviolability is to be equally taken into account whether he is dead or alive. Shariah (Islamic) Rulings entail acquiring gains and warding off losses. For this reason, Muslim Jurists held the opinion that it is allowable to cut a dead pregnant woman to take out her embryo in case there is a probability that he may be live. And, on the other hand, permitted destroying the embryo to save its mother's life, if it is thought that it may probably cause risk to her life. Far beyond that, they even announced the permissibility of eating the human dead flesh in case of impelling necessity. In his 'Biography of Al-Muzani', At-Taj As-Subki decisively said that the dominant opinion in the Shafi'e School of Jurisprudence is that under impelling necessity, there is no blame on eating the flesh of a dead human being. As to autopsying a dead person's corpse, whether of an elderly or a child, it is of a considerable significance for learning medicine, for it is by means of this knowledge (surgery) that physicians will be able to save the lives of the patient (which is a must). Autopsy, on the other hand, is substantial in terms of eliminating the excruciating pains of the patient, which is, again, a must. As for degrading the dead and transgressing his inviolability (caused by the removal or mutilation of an organ from his corpse), it can be justified and defended by the gain of the more beneficial of the two interests. For the judicial (Islamic) ruling entails that if two benefits contradict one another, then the more beneficial of them is to be given priority. And in case two harmful matters (mistakes) contradict one another (when there is no option to avoid both), the less harmful of them is to be committed to evade the more harmful. Fighting diseases and guaranteeing safety for society is a social interest, while rejecting the autopsy of a dead body is an individual interest pertaining to him alone. Therefore, the social (general) interest, which may be looked at as a major goal, is to be given precedence to the individual one, which is a minor goal (by comparison). Undoubtedly, on the other hand, to ward off harm from a living human being is given priority over to ward off harm from a dead person (in case of contradiction). And learning medicine is one of the communal obligations ordained on the Muslim Ummah, the undertaking of which necessitates learning autopsy and other medical fields. From the Islamic perspective, whatever matter without which an obligation cannot be accomplished is an obligation itself. For this end, one may donate any of his part(s) However, if a corpse of a non-Muslim was available for learning or if other teaching aids can be employed in the process without the need to transgress the inviolability of a dead person, then it is forbidden to use a Muslim's corpse in autopsy, for necessities are measured by their grades. A Fatwa (Islamic ruling) was issued, in conformity to what we have just stated, by the following legal Islamic authorities: 1) The Council of Senior Scholars of Saudi Arabia, in its ninth session, order number 47, in 1396 H. 2) The Islamic Judicial Assembly in Mekkah, in its tenth session, Safar, 1408H. 3) Al-Azhar Judicial Committee in 29/2/1971 CE.
Allah knows best.