Islamabad: In some good news for childless couples with medical complications, Pakistan's top Shariat court has ruled that using 'test tube baby' method for conceiving is "legal and lawful".

If "the sperm has been obtained from the father and the egg from the mother and the same has been fertilised in the test tube through medical process and the embryo is then placed in the womb of the actual mother... the procedure would be legal and lawful," the Federal Shariat Court declared yesterday.