Since the first IVF birth in 1990 the Iranian medical community has not only given full
support to the use and development of assisted reproductive technology but has aided the
emergence of a powerful locally-trained body of medical practitioners and biomedical
researchers. At the same time from a religious point of view most Shia legal authorities -
differences of opinion notwithstanding - have taken a relatively permissive view and generally
support assisted reproductive technology including procedures that involve egg sperm and
embryo donation as well as surrogacy arrangements under certain conditions. An examination of
the social legal and ethical aspects of the development and implementation of these
technologies in Iran is the subject of this book. It is based on a combination of extensive
ethnographic research and textual analysis of important academic and religious seminary
publications in Iran from Shia jurisprudence (fiqh) and Persian histories to the analysis of
laws and verdicts.
