Can Muslims and Jews Receive Pig Heart Transplants?

What brought this question to my mind was the approaching use of pig hearts for human implantation.

The pigs will be cloned, their DNA combined with genes from the intended recipients to help avoid rejection.

This work should come to fruition within a decade.

At that time, the question of whether a Muslim or Jew can receive a pig heart in order to avoid dying of heart failure will become real.

If it's forbidden to eat anything pork-related, then surely it must be a far greater transgression to allow part of a pig to become part of one's own body.

Wouldn't you think?

You'd be wrong.

It's OK to receive a pig valve if you're a Muslim.

Same holds true if you're Jewish.

But a beating pig heart?


http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/01/05/125423.php

Anatomical study on the surgical technique used for xenotransplantation: porcine hearts into humans.


Abstract
BACKGROUND:
The pig heart is an ideal graft for orthotopic cardiac xenotransplantation regarding its physiological attributes and ready availability. Although single clinical attempts have been performed since the 1960s, details concerning the surgical technique of pig-to-human transplantation have never been reported. The present investigation should verify which anatomical differences between humans and pigs require special care in cardiac xenotransplantation.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:
We transplanted four pig hearts into human thoraces after autopsy. Implantation was performed using both the biatrial (modified Shumway) and bicaval techniques. The implanted hearts were not perfused.

RESULTS:
The four-legged walk of the pig implies a more transverse heart position and therefore a different outflow-angle of the great vessels. Accordingly, the thin-walled pulmonary artery and the superior vena cava (in bicaval technique) tend to kink and narrow. A special feature of porcine anatomy is the left azygous vein that empties into the coronary sinus. It must be ligated before the implantation.

CONCLUSIONS:
Keeping the porcine anatomical particularities in mind, technical problems in pig-to-human heart transplantation can be avoided. The anastomosis of the pulmonary artery requires special care. By using the biatrial technique surgeons can prevent imminent stenoses of the caval vein anastomoses.

Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.



All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.



Dear brother, we are greatly pleased to receive your question, which shows the confidence you place in us. May Allah reward you abundantly for your interest in knowing the teachings of Islam. We invoke Allah to grant your father speed recovery, in sha’ Allah!



As regards your question, we’d like to tell you that your father is allowed to have a heart valve transplant from a pig if necessity requires the use of this organ to cure him and there is no other alternative. Also, it is a condition that a competent and trustworthy Muslim physician make this decision. Necessity overrules prohibitions in the juridical rule.

In this regard, we’d like to cite for you the fatwa issued by the eminent Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who states:

“Basically, transplanting an organ from an impure animal such as a pig to a human body must not be resorted to save in case of necessity. It should be considered that what is rendered permissible due to necessity should be estimated only according to what alleviates the hardship in every case. Also, this should be estimated by reliable and trustworthy Muslim physicians.

In such case, it can be argued that what is forbidden in respect to pigs is consuming their meat as stated in the Qur’an. However, transplanting a part from it to a human body is not a consumption but falls under the category of making use of this part. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has permitted the use of some part of it, i.e. its skin. The prohibition of eating the meat of pigs followed prohibiting the meat of dead animals. Then, if it is permitted to make use of some part of dead animals, then it is also permissible, by analogy, to make use of pigs in things other than consumption. Al-Bukhari and Muslim reported on the authority of `Abdullah ibn `Abbas that once Allah’s Messenger passed by a dead sheep and said to the people, “Wouldn’t you benefit by its skin?” The people replied that it was dead. The Prophet said, “But only its eating is illegal.”



Moreover, it may be argued that pigs are impure or najis, then how can we implant part of it in the body of a Muslim? Here, I say that what is forbidden according to Shari`ah is that impurities come in contact with one’s apparent body and that it be apparently [outwardly] contaminated with it. As for what is inside the body, there is no evidence to prevent it. This is because there exist a lot of impurities such as urine, stool, blood, and other discharges inside the human body, yet man is allowed to pray, recite the Qur’an, make tawaf around the Ka`bah, etc., with these impurities inside. These impurities do not affect his acts of worship, as the rulings related to impurities are not applicable regarding those inside the human body.”



The prominent Muslim scholar, Mufti Ebrahim Desai, adds: “If there is almost certain fear of loss of life or danger of losing the limb or organ, and the replacement is only found in haram animals or in permissible animals (which can be eaten) but not slaughtered according to Islamic rites, then use of such a component will be permissible. However, if there is no imminent danger of loss of life, then it will not be permissible to use anything from the pig.” (Source:
http://www.albalagh.net)



Sheikh ibn Baz, the late eminent Muslim scholar and former Mufti of Saudi Arabia was also of the view that “transplanting an organ from an animal lawful for Muslim consumption and which has been slaughtered or an animal not lawful for Muslim consumption, the latter under necessity, is permissible.” (Muqarrat Majlis al-Majma` al Fiqhi al Islami, Makkah, 1405/1985, page 147).



https://archive.islamonline.net/?p=18386