A critical approach to the current understanding of Islamic scholars on using cadaver organs without prior permission

Chronic organ diseases and the increasing demand for organ transplantation have become an important health care problem within the last few decades. Campaigns and regulations to encourage people to donate organs after death have not met with much success. This article discusses the subject from an Islamic perspective. It beings with some basic information on how Muslims reach legal rulings on a particular issue, and goes on to debate contemporary thinking among Islamic scholars on the ethical-legal issues of organ donation and organ transplantation. It is shown that there are two groups of scholars, one allowing organ donation and organ transplantation, the other refusing it in any circumstances. Both groups agree that is is fundamentally wrong to harvest organs from cadavers without prior permission of the deceased or the relatives. This dogma is re-examined, and it is argued that, under the rule of necessity and the imperative to preserve life, there is enough moral and theological ground to allow the state to harvest organs from the deceased without prior permission.