Pakistan's First Breast Milk Bank Shuts After Clerics Deem It "Un-Islamic"
NDTV
The milk bank in Karachi received religious approval in December from a provincial Islamic seminary, but the approval was withdrawn almost as soon as the facility opened in June, forcing it to shut.
A hospital that launched the first breast milk bank for premature babies in Pakistan is negotiating for it to be reopened after clerics deemed it un-Islamic, doctors and the national Islamic council said Friday.
The milk bank in Karachi received religious approval in December from a provincial Islamic seminary, but that approval was withdrawn almost as soon as the facility opened in June, forcing it to shut.
"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 Sindh Institute of Child Health and Neonatology hospital, where the bank was set up.