Surrogacy in Muslim Communities of the Middle East and Russia: Trends and Perspectives

Abstract

The article compares views on surrogate motherhood in the Muslim communities of the Middle East and Russia. It identifies current trends in attitudes of the Muslim population and Muslim leaders to surrogacy. Although Sunni Muslim leaders in the Middle East remain predominantly opposed to it, and public opinion in general continues to view surrogacy as an unacceptable form of assisted reproductive technology, some researchers advocate a change in attitude. Shiite Islam allows gestational surrogacy as a method of overcoming infertility and promotes the respective technologies, and this policy is supported by the Shi’a population. In Russia, despite the predominance of Sunni Islam among the Muslim population, the negative attitude towards surrogate motherhood is not as categorical as in the countries of the Middle East. Spiritual leaders allow the use of surrogacy in exceptional cases, when this is the only way to have children. The differences in restrictions in the use of reproductive technologies contribute to the development of “tourism” in the field of reproductive health.