Re: Abortion is murder…
The main issue has been the question of whether it is morally permissible to use embryo material for purposes other than that of gestation into human beings. The entire pro-life movement, but especially the Catholic Church and Evangelical Christians, have become concerned about the perceived link to abortion, because they believe such research poses the risk of encouraging women to have abortions in order to provide stem cells. Worse yet, some women may decide to get pregnant specifically so that the embryo may be aborted to harvest stem cells.
Are moral issues inherent to the nature of the research?
For Muslims the debates that drive Catholic and Evangelical concerns are not pertinent. Ensoulment, the moment at which a fetus receives a soul, according to the Qur’an and sunnah (way of the Prophet Mohammad [SAW]), does not occur until the fourth month of pregnancy. Thus, the use of embryonic stem cells, in itself, does not violate Islamic law. Even if the termination of a pregnancy is involved, there can be no question that the dictum “abortion is murder” can be applied, since the embryo is not a person. Nonetheless, the question of whether the creation of an embryo by a husband and wife specifically for the purpose of creating stem cells for the medical treatment of the couple or their children, or other relatives, should be prohibited, remains controversial in Muslim circles.
“Islam opposes creating embryos with the intention of using them for research.”
Additionally, the Shari’ah makes a distinction between actual life and potential life, determining that actual life should be afforded more protection than potential life. Thus, under most interpretations of Islamic law, the embryo is not considered a person and the use of it for stem cell research does not violate Islamic law.Also, under this same line of analysis, stem cells from aborted fetuses would also be permitted if the abortion was performed before the fourth month of pregnancy.
But again you would have to take into consideration what I have posted in the previous posts.
and I got the other bit from somebody else.
Hope it helps. Im not thinking properly today, so do excuse me folks if I messed up here.