What is the Islaamic ruling on organ donation?

QUESTIon: Can a Muslim write in his will for someone to receive one or more parts of his body?

ANSWER by Shaykh Muhammad 'Umar Baazmool, instructor at Umm Al-Quraa University in Makkah

Organ donation, in reality, is an issue that has a lot of other issues related to it, so it requires us to specify the issue more clearly.

Otherwise, then the sacredness of a Muslim that has died is like the sacredness of the living Muslim. So while it is not permissible for a Muslim to have an organ removed from his body to be given to someone else while he is alive without any dire necessity or emergency, then likewise he may not do this after his death.

Secondly, the body that has been given to a person is a trust. It is not for him to do with it as he likes, things that Allaah has not ordered him with nor has He legislated.

Thirdly, who will this organ go to? Will it go from the Muslims to other Muslims, or will it go from the Muslims to the disbelievers? As for the first case, then this is the focus of our discussion, since the second case is strictly prohibited. It is not permissible for a Muslim to donate one of his organs to a disbeliever. This is what seems apparent to me, and Allaah knows best.

So in the first case, a Muslim donating to another Muslim, this is the focus of our discussion. What seems apparent to me is that a fatwaa must be sought from a scholar for each and every situation, since each situation has its own distinct and specific details.

So the scholar will look into each case separately. Does this patient's life depend solely upon this organ? Or is this donor dead or only brain-dead? The scholars of fiqh have discussed this issue - Is being brain-dead considered a true death or not?

So the reality is that each and every situation requires an independent study. We are not able to issue one general verdict for all of these different cases, due to the great number of factors and problems involved.

So I say that each case must be studied independently by a council of the people of knowledge and specialization who look into all the details of the operation, so they can issue a verdict about the permissibility of taking that organ or not.

Some of the brothers have mentioned to me that a large number of transplants, or the majority of them, are not successful. They also mentioned that the majority of kidney transplants are unsuccessful as well. Usually the doctors acknowledge the likely rate of success, but the people do not heed this and they seek to donate their organs and promote transplanting, to the point that some people actually gather organs and sell them. All of these kinds of affairs are dangerous violations of the Sharee'ah.

What is obligatory on us is to restrict this issue to the individual verdicts of the people of knowledge and specialization who consult trustworthy doctors. They research each case and issue a verdict specific to it, and Allaah knows best.

SOURCE