8 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 4 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 8 The Issue of the Sex of a Conceived Child in Islam: From the Pre-Islamic Conceptions to the Current Methods of Genetic Selection of the Sexes Received August 15, 2018 Revised September 29, 2018 Accepted October 4, 2018 The Qur’an warns against the practice of preference of male over the female sex in children, which led pre-Islamic Arabs to infanticide of girls. Muslim’s hadith of the 9th century explains the causes of the formation of embryo with male or female sex, and the Islamic scholars in the Middle Ages still respected this tradition, which however has its roots in ancient Greece and in the Hippocratic tradition, especially in the writingDe victu–“On Diet”– the author of which is unknown. An important medieval Islamic author confirming the authenticity of this tradition is Sunni lawyer Ibn Qayyim al Yawziyyah with his work Tuḥfatul Mawdūd fī Ahkām al-Mawlūd, whose teaching is currently experiencing a great revival among muslims. Introducing new procedures in the context of ARTs (Assisted Reproductive Technology) in recent times has raised new issues within Islamic bioethics, new challenges that also involve preimplantation diagnostics in the question of sex selection out of medical or non-medical reasons. Key words Bioethics, Islam, genetic selection of sexes, ART, PGD Monika Zaviš
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