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Ruling on selling animal sperm for the purpose of artificial insemination

Question: 467630

I am an agricultural engineer in the animal reproduction department. For a while I have been working in the field of artificial insemination for animals (cattle, buffalo), and also importing animal sperm for some engineers and veterinarians who work in the same field.

Recently I saw a hadith from the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) which forbids charging stud fees.

The nature of my job is:

I go to an international centre to obtain animal semen. In this centre, the specialists examine this semen by taking a sample to make sure that the sperm that have been collected are still active. Then I buy it from the centre, and I examine it again, to check further.

During the insemination procedure, I try to pay attention to all factors that could allow conception to occur at the time of insemination, and if the animal does not conceive, I inseminate it again for free.

My question is twofold:

Firstly: the ruling on selling animal sperm to engineers and veterinarians.

Secondly: the ruling on artificial insemination of animals.

Answer

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

Firstly:

It is permissible to sell the semen of animals whose meat may be eaten, for the purpose of insemination, because it is pure (tahir) according to the correct view, and has beneficial uses, and it is possible to deliver it. Therefore it is a product which has value, so it is permissible to sell it like anything else that it is permissible to sell.

Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jibrin (may Allah have mercy on him) said: As for selling the semen to horse owners, that may be permissible if it is beneficial and gives results, and the aim is to increase the number of high quality horses. But the value of it should be within normal limits, without going to extremes in raising the value of this semen, because it does not cost its owners much, and they do not lose anything if it is wasted. End quote from the shaykh’s website.

Shaykh Muhammad al-Mukhtar al-Shinqiti said: With regard to the words “its semen and human semen”, what is meant by “its semen” is the semen of animals whose meat may be eaten; it is regarded as pure (tahir). Here the author is speaking about animal semen, because there are many different rulings regarding semen.

For example, animal semen may be sold, and this is applicable to different types of animals. It is well established according to Islamic teachings, and this is the view of almost all the scholars except the Hanafis, that it is not permissible to sell that which is impure (najis), because of the hadith of Jabir ibn ‘Abdillah: “Allah and His Messenger forbade the selling of dead meat [meat of an animal that was not slaughtered in the prescribed manner], alcohol, pork and idols.”  As it is proven that it is not permissible to sell what is impure, and it has been established that the semen that is emitted by an animal whose meat may be eaten is pure, then in this case, if someone were to ask you about selling the semen of animals, which is sold in syringes and injected into the females so that they will conceive and produce young, and whether it is permissible or not,

then according to the view that what comes out of an animal is impure, it is not permissible to sell it, because it is not permissible to sell what is impure. But according to the view that it is pure, it is permissible to sell it, because it is pure like any other pure item."(Sharh Zad al-Mustaqni‘  23/10).

With regard to the prohibition on stud fees – which means that it is not allowed to charge a fee for an animal mating with another and ejaculating – the jurists gave as a reason for that the fact that the nature and quantity of the water (semen) is not known, and it cannot be delivered; the matter depends on the animal’s desire and ejaculation.

Based on that, there is nothing wrong with you buying animal semen, then selling it.

Secondly:

Artificial insemination is a reproductive technology that is used to inseminate female animals using semen that has been extracted by mechanical means from male animals of good pedigree and high productivity. This is inserted into the female reproductive tract, after artificially inducing ovulation in the female by mechanical, hormonal or other means.

After the sperm is obtained, it goes through several stages, including freezing in order to obtain what is known as an insemination straw, which is placed in a nitrogen solution at minus 96°C, so as to preserve it when it is moved from one place to another.

When the straw is taken out for use, it is placed in hot water to prepare it for insertion in the uterus, using a specially designed syringe.

There is nothing wrong with artificially inseminating animals, even if that is done for a fee, and it does not come under the prohibition on stud fees.

In the answer to question no. 202324 , we explained that this artificial insemination does not come under the heading of stud fees, which are prohibited. Please see that question for more details.

And Allah knows best.

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