Schahrazade Halfaoui frowns at the fashion for ‘virgin births’.
If you believe the Mail on Sunday, ‘virgin births’ are the new trend in child bearing.
We’re not talking here about heterosexual couples using IVF to combat infertility; nor same sex couples making use of IVF (if you want my opinion, I think the former is one of the greatest accomplishments in medical history; and while I am against the latter, I am not so intolerant that I want to ban it).
No, what we are talking about is the woman who can’t be bothered to establish a long-term relationship in which to bear and bring up a child: she just wants one nine months from now, so she goes to a doctor in order to get pregnant by medical means.
As a Muslim, I cannot disagree more with this idea. In my religion, to have a baby before you are married and fully committed is strictly forbidden. The Quran teaches one simple way of life and that is intercourse between men and women. The Prophet (PBUH) says, ‘No house has been built in Islam more beloved in the sight of Allah than through marriage.’
Clearly these women have no religious or spiritual justification for their decision. Don’t get me wrong: I am not suggesting that they ought to abide by my religious beliefs; but the only thing they seem to believe in is their own sense of entitlement. As in: I want one, why shouldn’t I?
Well they shouldn’t because this is just the kind of spiritual desert which no child should have to grow up in. A place in which a baby is just another lifestyle asset, alongside the house, the car, the handbag and the Jimmy Choo shoes.
Forget all those scare stories about doctors acting like Frankenstein, this is the real meaning of ‘designer babies’.
Not so much playing God, more like treating the gift of life as just another item in-store.