CAIRO - Egypt's Muslim leaders said on Sunday that they had issued an edict, or fatwa, forbidding surrogate motherhood because it was "un-Islamic."
The Islamic Research Academy at al-Azhar in Cairo -- a university and centre for religious learning -- said it had ruled at a meeting late last week that carrying another woman's baby or becoming pregnant through a sperm donor contradicted Islamic law.
The academy also ruled it was un-Islamic for a woman to use her husband's frozen sperm to get pregnant after his death.
The academy is Sunni Islam's highest religious authority. The research academy and the head of al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, are entitled to issue religious edicts.
"This was the first time the academy's assembly reviewed this issue (surrogate motherhood). It was brought up in the meeting after we received a number of inquiries on this subject," the academy's Secretary General Sayyed Gargour told Reuters.
13:19 04-01-01
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