Does it make sense to speak of an "Islamic Bioethics"? Some lessons from the organ transplant controversy in Egypt

Abstract

AbstractWhy has Egypt, a pioneer of organ transplantation, been reluctant to pass a national organ transplant law for more than three decades? The talk will be based on Sherine Hamdy's newly released book, Our Bodies Belong to God: Organ Transplants, Islam, and the Struggle for Human Dignity in Egypt (2012) which analyzes the national debate over organ transplantation in Egypt as it has unfolded during a time of major social and political transformation—including mounting dissent against a brutal regime, the privatization of health care, advances in science, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the Islamization of public space. She will ask what implications this has for an “Islamic Bioethics” in general.