The laws on abortion in some Muslim countries: between the Islamic law and positive law

Abstract

The positions formulated over the centuries in the legal areas in the Islamic world on the legality and the limits of abortion are very complex and they refer to the canonical sources of the Sharia (the Islamic law). When the latter do not provide exhaustive answers any given subject, the main references are the doctors of the Islamic Law who offer legal opinions that are not all binding for those who have requested their opinion. Historically the legal reflections on abortion concern three main “pillars”: the infusion of the soul which, according to the Koran, occurs 120 days after fertilisation, the fact that classical laws punished abortion penally, and the approval by legal tradition of therapeutic abortion in that it protected the mother’s life first of all. The author then analyses the legislation of some Muslim countries (Tunisia, Kuwait, Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Algeria) and underlines that the Sharia (the Islamic Law) constitutes the main source of state laws.