Human cloning does not contradict with the question of creation or turns man into a creator, says Fadlallah.

BEIRUT, January 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The announcement made Friday, December 27, by a controversial cult claiming it had produced the world's first cloned human and the permissibility of the experiment in Islam sparked different viewpoints from prominent Muslim scholars.

Al-Azhar, the highest religious reference in the Sunni world, issued a fatwa ruling that human cloning is Haram and must be stopped.

On the same line, prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi also asserted that “viewed from the Islamic general objectives, rulings, and texts, human cloning is completely prohibited.”

However, Lebanon’s top Shiite scholar Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah endorsed a different viewpoint, allowing human cloning if its positive aspects overweight negative ones.

He stressed, however, that it is prohibited to use the organs of a cloned baby as “spare parts” in organs transplant operation.

In an interview with Tehran Radio on Tuesday, December 31, Fadlallah argued that cloning does not contradict with the question of creation or turns man into a creator.

“Those who recently carried out the cloning operation were guided by the divine law in pollination and delivery,” he said.

“They did not get the elements of their experiment from nowhere and therefore cloning is not about a new law of creation but rather being guided by the divine law,” added the Shiite scholar.

“Cloning is a great scientific event which indicates man’s genius in discovering the laws and systems created by Allah and his attempt to capitalize on them in his practical and scientific experiments,” he said.

According to Fadlallah, the religious stand on human cloning is determined by the positive and negative aspects of such an operation.

“One of the negative aspects of human cloning is that it would confuse the social reality regarding the  parentage, because cloning could produce a baby who has no father or mother which would stir inheritance problems,” he elaborated.

The Shiite scholar also asserted that "cloning would have negative repercussions on the emotional, social and family arenas.”

He added, however, that “human cloning could have positive health aspects and help find new discoveries that might be used in treating chronic diseases”.

Fadlallah stressed that it is totally prohibited to use the cloned baby to supply “spar parts” to patients.

“Killing a cloned baby to transplant his body parts in other patients is Haram as much as killing ordinary babies,” he added.

The scholar described as emotional the present controversy regarding the birth of the cloned baby “Eve”.

Brigitte Boisselier, head of the Clonaid company, said a baby girl, nicknamed Eve, was born Thursday, December 27, and weighed 3.1 kilos (seven pounds).

He said that what puts an end to the argument is the fact that this experiment would not as prevailing as the natural way of birth-giving because it is very expensive and the public can not afford its costs.

This, he argued, would limit the experiment implementation to a very limited circle.

On Saturday, December 28, the Islamic Research Academy, an affiliated offshoot of Al-Azhar, ruled that human cloning is impermissible and must be confront with all possible means.

It subjects man’s dignity to absurdity and experiment and seeks to find distorted human forms, it added.

The fatwa differentiated between human cloning and the application of genetic engineering to produce high-quality plants and animals as well as in medical applications.

In a related fatwa, Sheikh Al-Qaradawi stressed that Islam prohibits such cloning because it “contradicts with diversity of creation.”

“Allah has created the universe on the base of diversity while human cloning is based on duplicating the same characteristics of the original bodies.

“This bears great corruption to human life, even though we did not realize all its forms,” asserted Sheikh Al-Qaradawi.

“If human cloning is permitted, how will we determine the relation of the cloned in regard to the original – will he be his brother, his father, or even himself? This is a confusing point,” said the prominent scholar.

He underlined that cloning “contradicts with the pattern of creating things in pairs, as Allah said in His Glorious Qura’n.

“Cloning goes against this principle since it depends on only one gender. And this matter will cause harm to people,” added Sheikh Al-Qaradawi.

On the application of cloning techniques to treat diseases, the scholar reiterated that “cloning a whole human body is completely prohibited even if it is for the purpose of treatment.

“However, if it goes into cloning only specific parts of the human body such as heart and kidneys, for the purpose of treatment, this is permitted and actually recommended and rewarded by Allah.”