Angelica Cheng
Active Member

Should Malaysian Muslim Women Undergo Egg Freezing Overseas? – Sayyed Mohamed Muhsin, Dr Che Anuar Che Mohamad & Dr Alexis Heng Boon Chin — Ova
Muslim women should see the other side of the coin, and understand Islamic religious principles that ban egg freezing, before making their choice.

Should Malaysian Muslim Women Undergo Egg Freezing Overseas?
The stresses and complications of modern living have led to an increasing trend of late marriages and delayed motherhood worldwide. This, in turn, has motivated many single women to preserve their fertility by elective egg freezing for non-medical reasons, commonly referred to as social egg freezing.
Singapore will permit the procedure from 2023 onwards. In Malaysia, only non-Muslim women are allowed to freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons, while Muslim women must have a valid medical reason, such as fertility preservation upon undergoing cancer chemotherapy.
Some single Malaysian Muslim women will question the rationale of why they are banned from undergoing social egg freezing in their own country, especially career women who intend to postpone marriage and motherhood responsibilities for the sake of career advancement and lifestyle pursuits.
In the near future, it is anticipated that an increasing number of single Malaysian Muslim women will seek to do social egg freezing in Singapore and other countries.
Elective egg freezing is often promoted by feminists and social libertarians as a means for women to gain freedom and control over their bodies.
Nevertheless, Muslim women should also see the other side of the coin, and understand Islamic religious principles that ban egg freezing, before making their choice.
Social Egg Freezing Is A Controversial Issue In Islam
To date, contradictory fatwas on social egg freezing have been issued in different Muslim countries. On the one hand, a fatwa issued in Egypt in 2019 permits social egg freezing by single women, provided certain conditions pertaining to laboratory standards and clinical practice have been met.
On the other hand, three fatwas issued in Malaysia in 2003, 2015, and 2022 imposed a blanket ban on single Muslim women freezing their unfertilised eggs to be used later in marriage.
The basic underlying principle of these fatwas is that sperm and egg cells produced before marriage should not be used during the period of marriage contract (akad al-nikaḥ) to conceive a child, as this is thought to violate the sanctity of marriage and muddle the legitimacy of the conceived child’s lineage (nasab).
This is somewhat similar to Shariah injunctions that a child is considered illegitimate (walad al-zina) by default, if the timing of birth occurs less than six months after marriage, as he or she must presumably have been conceived by illicit sexual relations (zina), involving the merging of sperm and egg cells before marriage.
The latest Malaysian fatwa issued in 2022 further articulates another two additional objections to social egg freezing.
Firstly, the release of female egg cells outside the human body by unmarried women is deemed similar and tantamount to masturbation by a single man (istimna).
Secondly, single women wanting to undergo elective egg freezing due to anticipated late marriage is a matter of conjecture that has not yet occurred, rather than certainty.
In principle, Shariah must be grounded in certainty and cannot be based on mere conjecture, unless in an emergency situation or dire need, such as in the case of female cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy that might destroy their future fertility.
Muslims must note that variations in issued fatwas do not represent an aberration. Instead, fatwas should be viewed as intrinsically flexible, changing to accommodate different times, places, peoples, and local cultures.
Therefore, fatwas issued in Malaysia inherently uphold the welfare and interests (maslahah) of the Muslim community in Malaysia, based on local conditions and culture.
Avoiding religious bans on social egg freezing by moving to another country is thus not appropriate behaviour for a sincere Muslim.