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Islamic Regard Of The Fetus The human race is the noblest race as God decreed: "We have honoured the sons of Adam, provided them with transport on land and sea, given them for sustenance things good and pure, and conferred on them special favours above a great part of Our creation." (17:70) Since every person started as a fetus, Islam confers respect and protection on the fetus since the time it is there. On the metaphysical side we have already referred to the assignment of an angel to keep watching the pregnancy. A hadith of the prophet (that might well be another version yet of the same hadith) says: "God has assigned an angel to watch the uterus. The angel says: My Lord, it is a nutfa my Lord, it is an alaqa my Lord, it is a mudgha. And as God. shapes it the angel asks: my Lord, is it male or female? lucky or unlucky? rich or poor? How long will it live?-and all of this is then registered." (Qortobi: Ahkam al-Quran, 12,7) On
the practical side, various legal rulings were decreed by Islam to safegard
the well-being and healthy development of the fetus. It made it an obligatory
duty on the father to provide for the pregnancy and answer its financial
needs even if the relations with its mother have been severed by divorce
or separation or other circumstances. The provisions for the , pregnancy
are quite independent of any other dues the father might owe the mother. If a woman commits a crime the punishment of which is death and is proven to be pregnant, then the execution of the punishment shall be postponed until she gives birth to her baby and completes its breast feeding until weaned. This is a straightforward acknowledgement of the right to life of the fetus. This applies even if the pregnancy was illegitimate, emphasizing that the fetus conceived out-of-wedlock also has the right to life. This was the sunna carried out by the prophet and operates irrespective of the age of the pregnancy no matter whether it is very early pregnancy or has attained forty two days or more or less. It is the universal policy followed by all Islamic courts of all sects and juridicial schools. This ruling settles once and for all any queries pertaining to our duty to safegard and protect the fetus starting from the onset of pregnancy. Islam gives the fetus a' 'zirnrna'. The' 'zirnrna', is the status that qualifies a person to exercise his rights and his duties, except that this is incomplete in the case of the fetus, for the fetus enjoys its right but owes no duties. The fetus has the right to be related to its father without confusion of paternity. If its mother is a divorcee or a widow then she should not marry until the fetus is born so as to keep the genealogy clear. If a man dies while his wife is pregnant, then the rules of inheritance recognize the fetus as an inheritor if born alive. The share of the unborn is set aside, and other inheritors upon receipt of their shares of the legacy give a documented pledge that if more than one baby are born then they would reimburse the share of the twins. The same applies if the deceased is some other heritable than the father. If the fetus is miscarried at any stage of pregnancy but it shows definite signs of life such as a sneeze or a cough or suckling the breast or established movement and after a while it dies, then this fetus has the right to inherit any of its legal heritables who died after the beginning of pregnancy, and after the fetus dies it is inherited by its legal heirs. Islam prescribes punitive measures for committing abortion. Besides being a sin, punishable by God in this world or the hereafter, legal punishment is also due. This has been discussed extensively in books of jurisprudence, detailing the views of jurists of various sects. We will here, outline a digest of these lengthy views. If assault on the fetus results in miscarriage of a dead fetus, a money punishment is to be paid, as well as a separate punishment for the agression per se. The money punishment here is called the ghorra and it equals one twentieth of the money ransom that may be paid for killing an adult. The "ghorra" is paid to the legal heirs of the fetus, but if one or more of them did contribute to effecting the abortion, they have to pay their share of the punishment but are denied their share as inheritors, and this applies to the parents as well. The other punishment for agression is subject to the decision of the judge. It is severer if abortion is willful than when it is inadvertent. If the fetus is aborted alive and then dies as a result of the assault on it, the punishment is severer and may be raised to a full ranson, or even be considered manslaughter with full fledged punishment. If the result is abortion of a living fetus but afflicted with an injury such as the loss of an eye or a limb. compensation will be paid in accordance with the approved scale of compensations in the judiciary system. It is only under the necessity of saving the life of the mother if pregnancy is lethal to her, that all these penalties are foregone.
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