Dissecting the deceased for medical research

Question

The matter requiring investigation is this: in medical colleges nowadays, to teach anatomy the skeleton of a dead person is placed before (the students), it is cut open and dissected and so explained to the students; and nowadays this is necessary for medical education. Now the question is: are the sale and purchase of a dead body, keeping it in a medical college and cutting it open and dissecting it permissible according to the Shariʿa or not? In Bihishti Zewar (“Heavenly Ornaments”), part 9, p.

Answer

The sale and purchase of a dead body is not permissible; it is void (batil). Placing it before (the students) for medical education so as to cut it open and dissect it for experiment and practice is also not permissible. Education of this kind is not itself wajib, such that for its sake one should try to make a haram act permissible.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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