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Is it permissible to remove the bones of a deceased human for the purpose of science and research? Thank you.

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Islamic law prohibits the desecration of graves out of respect for the human being, and it equates breaking the bone of a deceased person to breaking it while they were alive. However, if dissecting the corpse is linked to achieving benefits or averting harms, and the dissection cannot be dispensed with, then it is permissible. It is preferable to limit dissection to those who have not yet been buried, to avoid desecrating the grave. If only buried individuals are available, then there is no impediment to exhuming the bones of the deceased.

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

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