As it is in human nature to want to have children, IVF is not forbidden in Islam. Muslims acknowledge that all death and life occur according to God’s Will. It is not considered a rebellion against the will of God to strive for a child in the face of infertility. All assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) are permitted under Islamic law, as long as sperm, ovum, and uterus are all of a legally married couple and the procedure is done during their marriage. Thus if a Muslim married couple choose to have children with the IVF method, fertilization should be done with the husband’s sperm and the wife’s eggs, and the embryos have to be transplanted into the wife’s uterus. No third party should interfere with marital sex and procreation functions. It is forbidden to use the sperm of anyone other than the woman’s husband’s. An abundance of fertilized embryos can be maintained by cryopreservation and transferred in a successive cycle to the same wife while the marriage is unharmed. It is not allowed to use the husband’s frozen sperm after his death.
