Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

This article is about the recognition of personhood when death occurs in early life. Drawing from anthropological perspectives on personhood at the beginnings and ends of life, it examines the implications of competing religious and customary definitions of personhood for a small sample of young British Pakistani Muslim women who experienced miscarriage and stillbirth. It suggests that these women's concerns about the lack of recognition given to the personhood of their fetus or baby constitute a challenge to customary practices surrounding burial as a Muslim. The article suggests that these women's concerns cannot be adequately glossed as a clash of Islamic belief versus Western medicine. Rather, they represent a renegotiation of Islamic opinion and customary practices within the broader context of changes in the medical and social norms surrounding pregnancy loss and infant death in multi-ethnic British society.

Original publication

DOI

10.1111/bioe.12047

Type

Journal article

Journal

Bioethics

Publication Date

02/2014

Volume

28

Pages

84 - 95

Keywords

British Pakistani Muslims, personhood, pregnancy loss, stillbirth, Abortion, Spontaneous, Beginning of Human Life, Ceremonial Behavior, Culture, Female, Fetal Death, Fetus, Humans, Infant, Newborn, Islam, Pakistan, Personhood, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Outcome, Social Values, Stillbirth, United Kingdom