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I am a thirty-two year old married woman. I was pregnant with twins, and in the seventh month, the doctor told me that the twins were fine and their weight was good, and that blood was reaching them in a natural way, but I should stay in the hospital for a month, until the beginning of the eighth month, and I should give birth by cesarean, because at any moment they could press on the umbilical cord and die. I said: “I want to go home and make arrangements for my children, because I have four children, then I will come back. Allah, may He be exalted, created the twins and He, may He be glorified, will take care of them.” The doctor agreed, but she said: “Do not take too long.” And she made me sign a form saying that I had refused to stay. Three days later, in the morning I could no longer feel the movement of the twins in my womb. That evening I went to the hospital, and the doctor told me that the twins had died a short while before. Now I bitterly regret my decision, because I am the cause of their death, and I do not know what to do. What must I do? Am I considered to be a killer?
Praise be to Allah.
What appears to be the case is that there is no blame on you, because it is not certain that the death was caused by pressure on the umbilical cord or the cord wrapping around them, and your actions had nothing to do with it. So you did not have to seek treatment or stay in the hospital.
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymin (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked: There is a woman who was pregnant, in the last month of pregnancy. She went to the hospital, and they asked her to stay in the hospital because of a matter that posed a danger to the child, having to do with her high sugar levels. But she refused, for fear that the doctors would not handle the situation properly. Then she came back to them after a while, and it became clear that the child had died. Is there any blame on her?
He replied: There is no blame on her. End quote from Thamaraat at-Tadween, p. 126.
It says in Fatawa al-Lajnah ad-Da’imah (21/404): I was nine months pregnant, and I felt some pains which forced me to go to the hospital. The specialist doctor advised me to have urgent surgery in order to save the foetus, because it would not be possible to give birth naturally. But I refused that surgery, and the doctor advised me that if I did not agree to have this surgery quickly, that would pose a danger to the foetus, and may lead to its death. And in fact the foetus died in my womb a few days later.
O Shaykh, is there any sin on me because of that, and should I regard myself as having caused his death, because I refused the surgery that would have saved his life which was in danger, by Allah’s will, according to what the doctors said? And do I have to offer expiation by fasting for two consecutive months?
Answer: If the situation is as described in the question, there is no blame on you for the death of the foetus, because the fact that you did not do the surgery cannot be regarded as heedlessness concerning his life or as a cause of his death. The surgery might not have led to the outcome that the doctor mentioned, and the basic principle is that one is innocent, praise be to Allah.
And Allah is the source of strength. May Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions. End quote.
We ask Allah to bless you with patience and to reward you for your calamity, and to compensate you with something better.
And Allah knows best.