Is it permissible to abort a fetus that is eighteen days old, due to the mother's affliction with chickenpox, which may cause severe birth defects, knowing that the soul has not yet been breathed into it?

The resolution of the Council of Senior Scholars, numbered (140), states that abortion is not permissible except for a legitimate religious reason and within very narrow limits. It permits abortion within the first forty days if there is a legitimate benefit or to avert an anticipated harm, while not permitting it out of fear of hardship or merely for family size.

Among the anticipated harms is fetal malformation, if trusted doctors determine it. Therefore, it is permissible to abort a fetus that is no more than eighteen days old if its malformation is medically proven. However, with mere probability, it is not permissible to abort it.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen mentioned that it is not permissible to abort a fetus after the human form has become apparent in it, unless a defect, such as an unbearable malformation, becomes clear, and doctors deem its removal necessary.

The researcher Ibrahim bin Muhammad Qasim stated in his Master's thesis that abortion is permissible if deformities are discovered before the soul is breathed into the fetus. He inclined towards the view that the original ruling for abortion before the soul is breathed in is prohibition, but that it varies according to the stages of fetal development, with the prohibition being less stringent in the first forty days. Exceptions are made for cases of actual or anticipated necessity, and some motives such as rape, therapeutic motives for the mother, or the discovery of incurable diseases or early deformities.