Utilization of the body and organ transplantation according to Islamic Law

With the widespread adoption of transplantation medicine in the twentieth century through the use of the most complex products of medical technology, ethical and religious problems surrounding organ transplants have begun to occupy the agenda of Western and Islamic bioethics communities. The goal of this study, which aims to contribute to the relevant literature from an Islamic perspective, is to convey the classical and modern Islamic viewpoints on the use of the human body and human organ donations and discuss current problems of organ transplantation. In this context, the legal status of the human body and its individual parts at the basis to the rights of God-rights of the human distinction, which is specific to Islamic law, will be examined in the relevant literature, along with personal and property rights, the limits of the right to utilization of the human body and basic principles. In the next stage of discussion, the necessity and need for organ donation and transplantation -practices that infringe at a basic level such principles as the honour and inviolability of the human body- are to be addressed as foundations for legitimacy within the context of the principle of maslahah (public good). Practical issues related to organ transplantation are also discussed in terms of their ethical, legal and religious dimensions, especially issues that are cause for great controversy, such as transplantation from brain dead and anencephalic patients, of non-life saving organs and tissues, such as the face, upper and lower extremities, and reproductive organs. The cases debated are treated fundamentally as benefit-cost balance problems.