During the treatment of IVF for infertility, more embryos may be created than will be used for the treatment cycle to implant. Is it permitted to do the following with the excess embryos: donate them to a research project. Our other options are to freeze them for future use or dispose of them. Jazaka Allahu Khayrane for your help, please reply soon.

All praise be to Allah, and may his peace and blessings be on the last and best prophet and messenger, Muhammad.

It is prescribed for physicians who conduct IVF to fertilize the necessary number of eggs only. However, due to the nature of the procedure, there may be, at times, excess embryos.

You may not donate them. (See below for the Islamic position regarding stem cell research.) You may either freeze them, if you are confident you will have control over them, or you may dispose of them, (which is better).

Here is an answer from the European Council for Fatwa and Research regarding a similar circumstance (translated from the Arabic original):

“The ruling regarding these nine embryos [excess embryos after IVF] is as follows: ‎

The lady may implant any of these embryos in her uterus as long as she is still ‎the wife of the man from whom the sperm was taken. But if she is separated ‎from him ‎through death, divorce or the ‎like, it will be unlawful to implant any of them and she ‎should destroy whatever remains of ‎them. ‎

In case the wife leaves Britain, if she thinks she will come to this country again ‎to implant one of the embryos, she is permitted to keep them frozen until ‎then for ‎that purpose. But if she ‎thinks that she will not (or most probably will ‎not) return, it will be unlawful to leave them behind, and she or her husband ‎should destroy them. ‎

In all cases, we find nothing against destroying them, whether the lady will or ‎will not return.” 

Islamic position regarding stem cell research:

Islam is not against stem cell research, yet the issue would be from where we take the cells.

If you take them from an adult person, there would be no harm, but the remaining stem cells in adults are limited. If you take them from the placenta and umbilical cord, that is also Ok. If you take them from spontaneously aborted fetuses, that is Ok as well. But it is forbidden to induce abortion to take them or fertilize human ova to obtain stem cells thereof, likewise would be cloning for stem cells, since all kinds of human cloning are forbidden even if they were in the very early stages of genesis.

Nowadays, there is more research in inducing stem cells, and hopefully that may lead to alternatives that will not necessitate extracting those cells from fetuses. The human embryo is the origin of the human being, and must be treated with care and respect.

Allah knows best.