mutilation

Autopsy on a corpse has two accepted legal applications: medical and criminal. However, due to the existence of some religious texts, it faces challenges such as the prohibition of mutilation of the corpse, the prohibition of crime against the corpse, the prohibition of desecration of the corpse, the prohibition of delaying the burial of the corpse, and so on. Perhaps for this reason, some contemporary Shiite jurists have considered autopsy as primarily prohibited and have conditioned its permissibility on necessity. The present article attempts, using a descriptive-analytical method, to clarify after examining the reasons whether such challenges can indeed be accepted or not. The results obtained from the investigations indicate that none of the alleged reasons can prove the obligation prohibition of autopsy on a Muslim corpse in general. However, due to the existence of narrations regarding the obligation to pay blood money in cases of severing a limb of a corpse, liability (Zeman) can be proven out of precaution.

Thanks to the developments in medicine, transplantation of organs has become possible through which people survive. Therefore, organ transplantation is among the necessary issues which have entailed many discussions including legal and jurisprudential considerations. This article aims to explain the jurisprudential ruling of organ transplantation. First, legal stages have been covered and then opinions of jurists about permissibility or impermissibility of removing an organ of a living human for transplantation have been mentioned. Later, the arguments by those jurists who forbid the removal of organs were analyzed and it was concluded that we should differentiate between a case where main organs on which the survival of the person depends are to be removed and the case where other organs on which the survival of the person does not depend are to be removed. In the first case it is unlawful and in the second case it is not unlawful because it is not included in any of the categories of unlawfulness.

The method of executing qisas of murder has been discussed under various jurisprudential issues such as executing qisas similar to how the murder has occurred, or by a poisoned or blunt device or to mutilate the murderer. This has also been discussed in article no.436 of Islamic Penal Code. In this research, following the jurisprudential study of this issue, a number of results have been obtained including new methods in executing qisas which inflicts the least pain to the convicts such as executing qisas of murder in the form of donating body organs which does not only have no legal constraint but also have many rational benefits. Therefore, it is recommended to adjust article no.436 to remove the legal barrier to use this new method and other methods which inflict the least pain upon the convicts.