Egypt’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Shawky Allam said on Wednesday that transplanting a cornea from a dead person is allowed under certain conditions, most notably that they give consent prior to death of their own free will and not in exchange for financial compensation.

The Mufti's comments come as Egypt’ Muslim religious institutions weigh in on the ongoing debate over the country's controversial cornea transplanting law, which allows certain hospitals to remove part of a deceased person's corneas without obtaining prior consent.

The law recently came under the spotlight after a video was shared online showing the body of a dead man at a Cairo hospital with bloody eye sockets.

Allam added that previous muftis and sheikhs at Al-Azhar – Egypt’s largest religious institution – have made statements that support this argument, including Sheikh Hassam Mamoun, Sheikh Ahmed Haridy, Sheikh Gad El-Hak and Sheikh Sayed Tantawy.

He also said in statements to the media that Al-Azhar has issued a fatwa on this matter that stresses the necessity of obtaining consent from the person prior to their death.

Mahmoud Mehana, a member of Al-Azhar's Committee of Grand Clerics, has said that no organs should be removed from the body of a deceased person without their explicit wish to that their organs be donated.

The cornea transplanting law gives hospitals with licensed cornea banks the right to remove the corneas of deceased patients without obtaining consent from them or their families.

A public debate over the law was sparked after the above-mentioned video was circulated online.

According to the description of the video, which has been shared thousands of times on Facebook, the deceased was 40-year-old Mohamed Abdel-Tawab, who died after being admitted to Qasr El-Ainy Hospital for heart surgery.

Abdel-Tawab's family has expressed outrage that the procedure was undertaken without their consent.

Although the head of Qasr El-Ainy Hospital Fathy Khodeir insists that the hospital did nothing wrong, he did suggest that the hospital may suspend cornea removals.

“Honestly, after what I have read and heard, the best way to protect the faculty and the doctors is to suspend [cornea removals],” Khodeir said on Facebook on Wednesday.

“It is better to suspend the service until the people are convinced of its importance,” Khodier said.