Sunday, September 22, 2013

Fathwa, - Mistake in Answer on Abortion?

Question:
I was directed by a link to an answer on your website entitled
''Abortion of babies with genetic diseases'' and discovered a mistake
in the medical part of the reply. I am concerned that many people will
read this and come to some mistaken conclusions about breastfeeding.
The sentence in question is:
Answer:
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
Jazak Allah khayr for your comments. There is no medical mistake in the answer.
The answer refers to the permissibility of abortion in [the generally
very rare] case when
�the milk of the pregnant mother ceases and the father of the child is
not in a position financially to hire a wet-nurse, and there is fear
of the child perishing, then they (fuqaha) have stated that it will be
permitted to abort the pregnancy, provided the period of 120 days have
not elapsed...�
The child in question is not the one the mother is pregnant with, but
a previous baby. The permissibility of abortion has various
conditions:
a) the previous child is dependent on the mother�s milk;
b) the father cannot hire a wet nurse nor provide alternative
nutrition that the child will consume; and
c) there is thus fear that this previous child may perish if the
mother�s current pregnancy continues;
d) this is before 120 days. [After this, it depends on many circumstances.]
As for when alternative nutrition (even other than breast milk) is
available and affordable, then abortion would be haram.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani

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