Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
it is not lawful to carry out insemination on a wife, using the sperm of a dead husband, and it is not permissible to use the sperm of any person other than the husband himself, for such thing will lead to mixture and confusion of lineage.
Responding to the question, Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Kan`an, Head of the Infectious Diseases Department affiliated to the Primary Medical Care Administration in the Eastern Region in Saudi Arabia, states:
Islam is the religion that caters for preserving human race from impurity and corruption in all aspects. It leaves no stone unturned in order to accomplish this aim.
For instance, Islam makes adultery a punishable crime in order to preserve the lineage; it prohibits libel and slander in order to safeguard man’s honor and dignity.
When Islam prohibits something, it does so for the sake of protecting mankind from certain harm that involving in such thing may entail. This is typically the case with sperm donation.
In the recent years, scientists have succeeded in making use of the sperms donated and kept in banks at a very low temperature; these sperms were used for insemination.
All Islamic Fiqh academies have rejected the idea especially when some Muslim countries began applying the idea. The simple reason for this rejection lies in the great dangers and evils that emanate from it.
In this regard, all these academies have demanded that in carrying out the process of insemination, the sperm of the husband himself must be used. Furthermore, these academies required that insemination must occur right after the sperm is taken from the husband not after depositing the husband’s sperm in bank.
Therefore, we say that as it is not lawful to carry out insemination on a wife, using the sperm of a dead husband, and it is not permissible to use the sperm of any person other than the husband himself, for such thing will lead to mixture and confusion of lineage.
As Muslims, we are asked to keep the whole society (whether Muslims or non-Muslims) clean and pure from everything that spreads corruption in it.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.