New parenthood and childhood patterns: Principles and praxes in Muslim realities

Against the backdrop of a broader discourse on bioethics, the volume investigates the Muslim prospective parents' right to a private family life as enacted within the boundaries of Islamic provisions, on the one hand, and Italian domestic law, on the other hand. Exploring (potentially) shari'ah compliant remedies to involuntary childlessness, reproductive and procreative technologies -i.e. ARTs and MAPs- are brought into focus as alternative routes to parenting and creative forms of filiation. Carefully examining the relationships between fertility centres' personnel and prospective Muslim parents, the study documents and evaluates healthcare providers' perceptions and Muslim patients' distinct -sometimes unspoken- specificities. In point of fact, staff members of clinics providing reproductive and biotechnological medical treatments are increasingly addressing religiously and culturally sensitive issues, as raised by intended mothers and fathers. Relying upon legal, scholarly and empirical data, the present work offers decoding tools for academic purposes as well as for healthcare providers and religious figures, who are coping with the progressive pluralisation of filiation patterns, on a daily basis. Paying specific attention to principles and praxes as understood and implemented in local Muslim realities, light is also shed on possibly partially concealed «old-new» kindred dynamics leading to imaginative family constellations.