Is it permissible to take medication to induce lactation for the purpose of breastfeeding a child in order to establish fosterage (radha'ah), and would this milk be harmful to the child?
The milk that is produced due to medication establishes the حرمة (prohibition of marriage), and the lactating woman becomes a mother to the infant through suckling. However, the husband of the lactating woman does not become a father to the infant because the milk is not from him but rather produced due to medication. Ibn Rushd stated that milk resulting from drinking something that induces its flow establishes the حرمة, citing the verse: {وَأُمَّهَاتُكُمُ اللاتِي أَرْضَعْنَكُمْ وَأَخَوَاتُكُمْ مِنَ الرَّضَاعَةِ} (And your mothers who have suckled you, and your sisters through suckling), as it does not specify a woman with a husband from one without. So, if your relative suckles your child five times, while the child is under two years of age, with milk produced due to medication, then the child becomes her son, and her children become his siblings through suckling, and her brothers become his maternal uncles through suckling, but not her husband, his brothers, or his children from other women.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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