Artificial insemination has become a popular modern solution for infertility. Scientists have managed to facilitate the birth of children in a variety of formats. Mothers have given birth to their daughters' children, sisters have borne children for their sisters and even daughters for their mothers.

Only one format is permissible from an Islamic perspective; the sperm of the husband combined with the ovum of the wife in the womb of the wife. Artificial insemination in this format aids the natural parents have children.

The other formats are all considered illegal and create obvious confusion in genealogy. The husband's sperm combined with another woman's ovum is not genetically his wife's child, even though she bears it. The child would be considered the product of adultery. The husband and wife's sperm and ovum borne by the wife's mother is not the couple's child any more than it is the mother's.