ملخص تنفيذي

The genetic tests that can be performed before marriage, before implanting embryos, during pregnancy, or after birth have offered new opportunities to manage the risks of having children with genetic disorders and the associated financial and social burdens. Like other communities worldwide, many Muslims want to pursue the benefits of these tests but in a way that aligns with their religious beliefs and moral convictions. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Muslim religious scholars, in collaboration with biomedical scientists, have been examining the ethical questions surrounding genetic testing.

This report provides an analytical review of these decades-long Islamic bioethical deliberations. It provides a systematic overview of the Islamic perspectives on four main types of genetic testing: premarital; preimplantation; prenatal; and newborn.

Section 1 outlines the related biomedical aspects and key ethical questions, as highlighted in the international bioethical discourse. Section 2 is dedicated to analyzing the Islamic ethical perspectives and how they can be translated into actionable guidelines. Section 3 provides a number of conclusions and policy recommendations, which we hope will aid policymakers, care providers, and couples in navigating these issues from an Islamic ethics perspective.