Jurisprudential - legal studies of woman and family

Jurisprudential - legal studies of woman and family

An Examination of Evidence for Fetal Ensoulment

Document Type : Original Article

Author
saeed hassani
Assistant Professor, Department of Theology Education, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
This article aims to examine the jurisprudential evidence for fetal ensoulment and its impact on legislation. The study utilizes the descriptive-analytic research method, drawing upon bibliographical sources. The research findings indicate that there is no explicit and valid religious text that specifies the exact timing of ensoulment after four months of fetal development. The hadiths pertaining to a forty-day timeframe for each fetal period—namely, drop of fluid (nuṭfa), clinging mass (ʿalaqa), and fleshy tissue (muḍgha)—are contradictory in their content. However, in various jurisprudential hadiths and works, the fetus's volitional movements are deemed evidence of its animal ensoulment. Considering that these hadiths have the general public as their audience, the evidence consists in the mother feeling the fetus's volitional movements. In case there is a doubt regarding fetal ensoulment, what prevails is the continuity (istiṣḥāb) of non-ensoulment or continuity of lack of volitional movement. If the fetus's volitional movement is not established, then rulings of non-ensoulment will apply. Consequently, the fetus reaching four months into its development is not evidence for its ensoulment. The moment of its ensoulment is the mother's feeling of the fetus's volitional movement. Moreover, embryologists' verdicts on the moment of volitional movement, along with general screening by medical jurisprudence, are authoritative as cases of expert view.
Keywords
evidence for ensoulment
fetus’s volitional movement
fetus’s four-month development
Subjects
The Quran.
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  • Receive Date 30 April 2024
  • Revise Date 04 July 2024
  • Accept Date 04 August 2024