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Is giving birth to a sick child by Caesarean section in the seventh month of pregnancy, based on doctors' confirmation that the child will not live, considered "killing a soul" that warrants punishment?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If the operation is deemed necessary by doctors, then the mother bears no sin for what happened to the child. However, a Caesarean section without necessity is forbidden. The removal of a fetus during a period when it would normally survive is not considered killing a soul. But if doctors confirm before the operation that the fetus will not survive, and there is no necessity for the procedure, then there is concern that this could be a forbidden abortion after four months, and thus fall under the category of unlawfully taking a life.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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