Islamic Perspectives on Elective Ovarian Tissue Freezing by Single Women for Non-medical or Social Reasons.

Non-medical or Social egg freezing (oocyte cryopreservation) is currently a controversial topic in Islam, with contradictory being issued in different Muslim countries. While Islamic authorities in Egypt permit the procedure, issued in Malaysia have banned single Muslim women from freezing their unfertilized eggs (vitrified oocytes) to be used later in marriage. The underlying principles of the Malaysian are that (i) sperm and egg cells produced before marriage, should not be used during marriage to conceive a child; (ii) extraction of mature egg cells from single women being unacceptable; and (iii) fertility preservation in anticipation of late marriage is a conjecture that has not yet occurred. Ovarian tissue freezing can potentially be a more -compliant alternative to social egg freezing, because once the frozen ovarian cortical tissue sections have been re-transplanted back into the woman, mature egg cells can readily be produced, collected, and fertilized by the husband's sperm only during the period of marriage contract ('). Unlike accidental mix-ups with frozen eggs, muddling of lineage () would be automatically avoided in ovarian tissue freezing due to immunological rejection. However, upon critical analysis based on (Islamic Legal Maxims), (Higher Objectives of Islamic Law), and (benefits versus harmful effects on society), elective ovarian tissue freezing by healthy single women for social reasons would likely be a highly contentious and controversial issue within Muslim communities that may conflict with conservative social-religious norms. This thus needs further debate among Islamic jurists in dialogue with medical doctors and biomedical scientists.