The Views of Fuqaha on the Permissibility and Prohibition of Milk Bank

Abstract

Milk Bank is something common in other countries. In fact, it is widely established in the United States, United Kingdom and other developed nations. The main objective of such establishment is to save lives of babies especially premature babies, babies whose mothers passed away, babies with allergies towards formula milk and others. The problem arises in the way they establish milk bank, which is against the way outlined by syarak (Islamic laws) and it may cause multiple and cross-cutting milk relationship that impedes marriage. Consequently, the negative effect has led The 97 th Conference of the Fatwa Committee National Council for Islamic Religious Affair of Malaysia held in 15 th-17 th December 2011 to forbid the establishment of milk bank. Therefore, the objective of this research is to find out the nursing conditions that institutes mahram (milk-kinship with its ensuing marriage prohibition) and to study the views of fuqaha (Islamic jurists) on the milk banking practice. This research is based on qualitative method that involved literature reviews. Meanwhile, data collection process is carried out through document analysis method.