Abstract

The utilization of Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs) has become a global issue in the field of modern biotechnology. It always triggers in-depth debates on the various aspects such as philosophy, religion, law and politics. This study discusses the general description and benefits of ESCs, as well as analyzes its use based on the perspective of Islamic law. The method of research is literature study of texts from multidisciplinary field such as medical science, ethics and Islamic law. The research indicate that although there are differences in the views of fuqahā on when life begins, the Islamic law explicitly distinguishes between "potential life" and "actual life". Both types of life are distinguished by spirit blowing (nafkh al-rūh) in human. Thus, with this view it can be concluded that the use of ESCs in the development of biotechnology is supposed to be justified because human embryo is considered as "potential" human, limited to body that does not have the spirit (al-rūh), and it can not be said as an "actual" human who has an "actual" life with spirit (al-rūh) and body.