By: Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah (ra)
Translated by: Manal Samhat
Reactions to the operations of cloning varied, with many foreign countries issuing laws that prohibit these operations for all purposes whatsoever. But His Eminence, the Religious Authority Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah, issued a Fatwa that deemed cloning permissible, in what amounted to a breakthrough on both the local and international levels, especially that the debate on the issue is still unfolding, and the Catholic Church, as well as a large number of Muslim religious authorities, have expressed their unequivocal opposition..
This Fatwa did not surprise those who have been following all the Sayyed's pervious Fatwas related to many sensitive topics, the last of which is his fatwa concerning the permissibility of depending on astronomical calculations in identifying the beginning and the end of the month of Ramadan, as well as all the Islamic occasions, instead of merely depending on the sight seeing of the moon, but his announcement that cloning is not Haram has given the issue a new dimension and opened a fierce debate in the Arab, as well as the Islamic worlds, especially that those who disapprove of cloning have based their rejection upon the religious values of the Islamic doctrine.
His Eminence has identified, accurately, the points of permissibility and prohibitions with respect to cloning, explaining at the same time his view which is based on his jurisprudent judgment, discussing many possible effects of this operation on the human societies and legislative rulings starting from the lineage, inheritance, and legislative obligations of the cloned, and some other ideas, which are in his view fictitious. Fadlullah's opinion, though different from other jurisprudents, but he considers it to be is open to discussion as well as dialogue.