Pakistan's First Breast Milk Bank Faces Shut Down After Clerics Declares It 'Un-Islamic'

Pakistan's ultra-orthodox clergy again overpowered the medical science as the country's first breast milk bank for premature babies struggles to reopen after it was shut down for being deemed 'un-Islamic' by the clerics. The breast milk bank at a hospital in Karachi had earlier received religious approval for operation by a local Islamic seminary in December. However, the permit was almost immediately withdrawn after the bank opened in June, forcing it to shut.

Since the shutting down, doctors are negotiating with the clergy to get the facility opened, AFP reported. The bank was opened at the Sindh Institute of Child Health and Neonatology hospital.

"Breast milk is the only way to improve the chances of the survival of premature babies," said Jamal Raza, a doctor and the executive director of the hospital.

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Defending the medical intervention in an area suffering from a very high rate of stunting among premature babies, Raza said "People have no idea what this is about. Only premature babies were going to be given this milk."

The health intervention was aimed at saving premature babies in a country where the neonatal mortality rate is 39 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the UN Children's Agency, making Pakistan one of the worst nations on this parameter in South Asia.

Earlier, the breast milk bank was approved by a provincial Islamic advisory body - Jamia Darul Uloom - in December 2023 when it issued a fatwa in support of the medical facility.

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However, the government's National Council of Islamic Ideology later raised concerns that it might violate Islamic kinship codes, which stipulate that a husband and wife cannot be breastfed by the same woman.

"The child's family must know who the donors are to not complicate the issue of future marriages between such families," the head of research at the council, Inamullah told AFP.