Purity: Rulings on Medical Use and Burial of Muslim Corpses and Organs
Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei
Purity: Rulings on Medical Use and Burial of Muslim Corpses and Organs
English:
Question #230:
A medical team is constrained, for the purpose of conducting medical research and experiments, to remove the heart and some other organs from a corpse and to bury them a day after the study. Please answer the following questions:
i. Is it permissible for us to undertake such an activity despite our knowledge that these corpses on whom the tests are conducted belong to Muslims?
ii. Is it permissible to bury the heart and some body organs separately?
iii. Is it permissible to bury these parts with another corpse, especially when we are certain that the separate burial of the heart and these organs will cause many problems?
Answer #230:
As long as saving a respectful human life, getting access to medical experiments needed for the society, or providing information about a disease threatening people’s lives depends on dissection of a dead body, dissection is permissible. However, it is necessary, as far as it is possible to dissect a non-Muslim’s body, not to dissect a Muslim’s cadaver. As to the organs removed from a Muslim corpse, the rules of Islamic law say that they should be buried along with the body. If it is not possible, there is no objection to burying them separately or with another corpse.