Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Human germ cell engineering is a modern technology researched with the aim of studying perennial hereditary mutations in herbaceous, animal and human generations. It has led to abundant arguments and discords among ethics and law experts. Possible changes in the human genome that are identified - according to deceleration of human genome and human rights - as the heritage of humanity and the fundamental unity of all members of the human family lead to questions about the relations between this technology and the normal process of creation. At first glance it seems that human germ cell engineering may lead to innovations in the ordinary institution of creation and the old customs of reproduction. Pursuing the contrasting viewpoints on human germ cell engineering, we can observe an essential and material concern about "changing God's creation" or "interference in the will of God"."Changing God's creation" is a current term in Islamic juridical and moral literature. It performs the main role in the legal destiny of genetically engineered creations so the assertion of this phrase about a being can lead to its natural prohibition. The majority of Moslem interpreters maintain that creation bears upon man's Godly disposition, which is unchangeable. In this research, adopting a dominant approach, the author thinks that the process of human germ cell engineering is not exclusively a sample for the term "changing God's creation". In this article we will try to analyze the potentials of the subject of change in genetic engineering of the human germ cell while taking into consideration the holy religion of Islam.

 Practically, scientific foundations illustrate that the embryo plays a main role in the related technical scenarios. Considering this fact, if technical researches orientated to human subjects, essential legal and juridical arguments will be generated. This article aims to offer a new analysis about moral and juridical nature of human embryo and the associated parental relationships. Adopting this idea that the embryo before 4^th month has no human dignity, the author attempted to present a parental relationship based on ownership and material value. Although the author believes that this idea is built on the legal foundations, it primarily seems that the adopted idea will be faced to moral challenges. From the stand point of this article the concept of the material value of the embryo absolutely refers to an intrinsic value and it doesn’t necessarily relate to financial treats. On the other hand, according to the main pure content of the Islamic juridical rule of Taslit, it illustrates that the right of ownership has been limited by different restrictions .