Short answer
A couple may freeze spare embryos to use themselves in a later cycle while they are still married. They may never be given to another couple. After divorce or the husband's death they may not be used at all. Many scholars advise creating only the embryos you need, and letting any surplus end without further support. Ask a mufti before deciding.
Embryos may be used only by the same husband and wife during their marriage. Giving them to others is haram. Before ensoulment an embryo does not have the full sanctity of a person, so allowing surplus embryos to perish is not killing, but they should not be created needlessly or treated with disrespect.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
IVF often creates more embryos than are transferred. The couple is then asked what to do with the rest: freeze them, donate them to another couple, donate them to research, or let them be discarded. Each option has its own ruling.
- Freezing for yourselves: allowed by many contemporary scholars, as long as they are used only by the same husband and wife while the marriage lasts, and the clinic is trusted to prevent any mix-up.
- Giving to another couple: haram, by agreement of contemporary scholars, because the child would be born to a woman who is not its mother and a man who is not its father. See donor sperm and eggs.
- Using them after divorce or death: not allowed, because the marriage that made conception lawful has ended.
- Letting surplus embryos end: the OIC Islamic Fiqh Academy advised fertilising only the number needed, and leaving any surplus without further medical support so that it ends naturally.
- Research: scholars differ. Some allow donating surplus embryos to research with the couple's consent; others do not. Ask a mufti.
The Hanafi school treats the earliest stage of life more lightly than the stage after the soul is breathed in at 120 days, which the Prophet ﷺ described in the hadith of the stages in the womb. That is why letting an early embryo perish is not treated as killing a person. It is still the beginning of a human life, so it should not be created carelessly.
Before you sign the clinic's consent forms, decide with your spouse, ask the clinic to limit the number of eggs fertilised if you can, and ask a mufti about your situation. Follow a qualified doctor on the medical side. For the main rules, see is IVF haram.
Ask a mufti about your own case. This answer explains the general ruling. When the details of your situation matter, as they do here, ask a qualified mufti and give them the full facts. Where to ask a scholar.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Baqara 2:223
نِسَآؤُكُمْ حَرْثٌۭ لَّكُمْ فَأْتُوا۟ حَرْثَكُمْ أَنَّىٰ شِئْتُمْ ۖ وَقَدِّمُوا۟ لِأَنفُسِكُمْ ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّكُم مُّلَٰقُوهُ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٢٢٣﴾
Your wives are a place of sowing of seed for you, so come to your place of cultivation however you wish and put forth [righteousness] for yourselves. And fear Allah and know that you will meet Him. And give good tidings to the believers.
Conception belongs within the marriage of the husband and wife.
Quran, Surah Al-Muminoon 23:14
ثُمَّ خَلَقْنَا ٱلنُّطْفَةَ عَلَقَةًۭ فَخَلَقْنَا ٱلْعَلَقَةَ مُضْغَةًۭ فَخَلَقْنَا ٱلْمُضْغَةَ عِظَٰمًۭا فَكَسَوْنَا ٱلْعِظَٰمَ لَحْمًۭا ثُمَّ أَنشَأْنَٰهُ خَلْقًا ءَاخَرَ ۚ فَتَبَارَكَ ٱللَّهُ أَحْسَنُ ٱلْخَٰلِقِينَ ﴿١٤﴾
Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation. So blessed is Allah, the best of creators.
The Quran describes the early stages of the unborn child.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3208
Sahih... إن أحدكم يجمع خلقه في بطن أمه أربعين يوما ...
"The creation of each of you is gathered in his mother's womb for forty days, then he is a clot for the same period, then a lump of flesh for the same period; then an angel is sent and the soul is breathed into him."
The basis for treating early embryos differently from a child after ensoulment.
Where the ruling is recorded
- Resolutions of the Islamic Fiqh Academy (OIC), Resolution on surplus pre-embryos. Only the needed number of eggs should be fertilised; surplus embryos are left without care to end naturally and may not be used for another woman.
- Jadid Fiqhi Masa'il (Khalid Saifullah Rahmani), Chapter on test-tube babies. A Hanafi treatment of IVF that forbids any third party.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.