Quran’s View on Abortion
Hojat-ol-Islam Alireza Al-Boye, a university and seminary lecturer, discussed the issue of abortion from ethics and Quranic perspectives. Here is an excerpt from his speech.
The Holy Quran believes that dying does not mean destruction, rather, it refers to the separation of the soul from the body. Accordingly, when does human life begin? It starts when the soul is breathed into humans and according to the Quranic verses, this happens a while after conception.
It is said that the soul is breathed into the fetus in the fourth month, so what is the ruling on killing the fetus before that? According to this argument, a person becomes a person when the soul is breathed into him, and he is not a person before that. According to narratives, this time is the fourth month, but there is no mention of this in the Quran. So, I believe killing an embryo before the fourth month is also unpleasant as we have proved through an argument that the unborn child also has dignity before this time; that is, it is a creature that is on the verge of becoming human.
Therefore, abortion is improper from the moment of conception and this impropriety has different levels; it is less unpleasant if performed before the soul is breathed and more unpleasant after that. This is why jurists have determined different blood money for killing the fetus before and after this stage.
Another argument based on the impropriety of abortion is the argument of “abortion and the place of man in existence”; If we want to talk about abortion, we must consider the place of man in existence and reflect on it, and this discussion can be followed based on philosophy and the Quran, and I have followed it according to the Quran.
The Holy Quran has three major discussions about humans; the origin of man, the nature of man and the end or destination of man. The origin of man is that he has been created by God, and on the other hand, the divine spirit has been breathed into him, and man is God's caliph on earth and has inherent dignity. So the origin of man is from God, his nature is divine and his destination is eternal. We have no right to destroy an embryo that is supposed to experience eternity.
The other argument is that the embryo is a gift from God. How do we treat someone who has given us a gift? We thank him even if we don't like the gift. Therefore, when God bestows an embryo on a couple, it means giving them a gift. There are 19 verses in the Quran in which the word gift is used; four of which are general and 15 verses are about humans. Some verses directly note that children are gifts offered by God.
But what if an embryo is conceived illegitimately? Is it still a gift? I have answered this and similar questions in my article. A child may be born with defects or the conception may have been illegitimate; however, these are also gifts from God. One cannot blame God, rather, it has been the fault of two people that an illegitimate child was created. Therefore, the error did not occur in the giver, but the error occurred in the recipient.
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