Ruling on aborting or caring for a child whose mother has AIDS

 

s it permissible for a mother who has AIDS to have an abortion if she gets pregnant? Does she have the right to take care of the child? Is it permissible for either spouse to nullify the nikaah (marriage contract) if it is discovered that the other has AIDS?

Praise be to Allaah. 

Firstly: abortion in the case of a mother
who has AIDS:

Because AIDS is not usually transmitted by a mother to
the foetus until the later stages of pregnancy – after the soul has
been breathed into the child – or during delivery, it is not permissible
according to sharee’ah for her to abort the foetus.

Secondly: a mother with AIDS taking care of
her healthy child and breastfeeding him:

Because current medical knowledge indicates that there
is no definite risk to the child from a mother who has AIDS, because
the way she deals with him is the ordinary way of mixing with people,
from the point of view of sharee’ah, there is no reason why the mother
should not take care of her child and breastfeed him, so long as there
is no medical report to state that she should not do so.

Thirdly: the right of the healthy spouse to
ask for separation from a spouse who has AIDS:

The wife has the right to demand separation from a husband
who has AIDS on the grounds that AIDS is a contagious disease that is
transmitted primarily through sexual contact.