Former Labour minister hits out against proposed IVF law
Former Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella has harshly criticised the proposed IVF law which was announced on Wednesday.
Taking to social media, the former Labour minister wrote: “New IVF Bill: Need we go this far down this slippery slope to deliver on the utopic promise of ‘equality’?
In another tweet he said: “New IVF bill a complete travesty of ethics, morality, and human dignity, allegedly to remove ‘discrimination’ imposed by nature herself.”
Health Minister Chris Fearne announced that the government would be proposing embryo freezing; however, it is being tied to forced anonymous adoption of any remaining embryos to other couples or individuals.
Fearne presented the highlights of a revamped law for in-vitro fertilisation on Wednesday to members of the media.
IVF is a treatment sought by infertile couples or individual women – whether for surrogacy or to have a child as a single mother – whereby the egg and sperm are fertilised outside of the body.
The fertilised egg, or embryo, is then implanted into the womb. If the procedure is successful, the embryo will then implant itself into the womb, and the women will then hopefully carry the pregnancy to term.
Under the current Embryo Protection Act, introduced by the Gonzi administration, embryo freezing was expressly forbidden. In order to increase the chances of successful pregnancies more than one embryo is inserted in the womb.
Due to embryo freezing being currently illegal, a woman may end up with multiple pregnancies, twins or even triplets, which can pose a significant challenge to a women’s physical health. Therefore, the government is proposing the legalisation of embryo freezing for up to three embryos in the first cycle, and up to five in the second cycle should the first fail, with the aim of increasing the rate of success.
Any embryos no longer needed as a result of a successful pregnancy would be frozen. Infertile couples or single women may then anonymously “adopt” an embryo that was not used by another couple.
Due to the need to be aware of any genetic illnesses or genetic predispositions to illnesses such as diabetes or heart disease, the child born through the adopted embryo will have access to their medical records after the age of 16. If the child suffers a medical condition prior to 16, the ‘adoptive’ parents will have access to the medical history.
Another notable change is that IVF will now be open to everybody, homosexual couples and/or single persons. Currently, heterosexual couples are the only category legally allowed to receive IVF treatment in Malta.
Due to this change, sperm and egg donation would then become legal in Malta, through sperm/egg banks.
The former minister is known for his conservative views, having publically expressed opposition to the introduction, by his own government, of same-sex marriage and adoption for samesex couples.