The College of Law at the University of Baghdad discussed a master’s thesis entitled “The Impact of Medical Technologies on Establishing the Fetus’s Financial Rights: A Comparative Jurisprudential and Legal Study,” submitted by student Rania Hisham Saddam, in the Private Law Branch. The discussion was held on Sunday, August 23, 2026, in the college’s Virtual Moot Court Hall.
The discussion committee consisted of Prof. Dr. Hamid Sultan Ali, Chairman; Prof. Dr. Ziad Hamad Abbas, Member; Assist. Prof. Dr. Amer Ghanim Alwan, Member; and Assist. Prof. Dr. Harith Ali Ibrahim, Member and Supervisor.
The thesis aimed to explain the nature of modern medical technologies related to the fetus and their principal applications, identify the financial rights granted to the fetus under Islamic jurisprudence and law, examine the evidentiary authority and value of these technologies, and clarify the positions of Islamic jurisprudence and law on the extent to which they may be relied upon to establish rights relating to the fetus. It sought to reach findings and recommendations that could contribute to strengthening the religious and legal protection of the fetus’s financial rights.
The thesis was divided into three chapters. The first examined the jurisprudential and medical concept of the fetus and its impact on the development of its legal personality. The second addressed the fetus’s financial rights relating to lineage, inheritance, and bequests. The third examined the impact of medical technologies on the fetus’s entitlement to endowments, gifts, and compensation.
The thesis reached a number of findings and recommendations, most notably a call for the enactment of special Iraqi legislation regulating the use of the human genome, keeping pace with scientific developments in modern medical technologies, particularly genetic testing, given its importance in the early detection of hereditary diseases and in establishing certain rights relating to the fetus. This recommendation is comparable to the approach adopted by the UAE legislator under Federal Decree-Law No. 49 of 2023.
The thesis also recommended the need to explicitly regulate the legal personality of the fetus under Iraqi legislation and to precisely define its legal status in a manner consistent with medical and scientific developments while strengthening legal protection for its future rights.
It further recommended enacting a special law regulating medically assisted reproduction, specifying the circumstances in which assisted reproductive technologies may be used and restricting their use to married couples with the consent of both parties. The law should also regulate prohibited practices, including confusion of lineage, cloning, and the selection of genetic traits for non-therapeutic purposes, while establishing precise safeguards for conducting medical research in order to protect lineage and safeguard the rights of the fetus and the spouses.
This discussion reflects the College of Law at the University of Baghdad’s commitment to following scientific and technological developments and their implications for the legal system, as well as its encouragement of academic research addressing contemporary issues and exploring legislative solutions. Such research contributes to the development of legal studies and strengthens the protection of rights in light of modern medical advances.
