Embryo research and the Church

As a senior Maltese doctor and a Catholic I am frankly bewildered by some of the remarks made by Rev. Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott before the parliamentary social affairs committee as reported in The Times (February 9).

The need for legislation to regulate high-tech procedures assisting human reproduction in our hospitals has recently been publicly declared by our Bishops and is endorsed by most of the medical profession in these islands.

The problem is to define the kind of regulation that is right for our people, within the context of our culture and of the values we hold dear to us. Rev. Prof. Serracino Inglott stated that "it is difficult to justify prohibitive legislation with regard to research on embryos" and goes on to substantiate this statement by saying that "he could not see on which principles the freezing of embryos should be prohibited by law". I am no philosopher but I can see a difference between freezing a viable human embryo and experimenting on it whenever I choose for purposes of research.

He takes our general hospital to task for not providing an IVF service and says that "the obligation to preserve life was not absolute, as a person could refuse possible life-saving treatment". Now I grant him that it does sometimes happen that hazardous but possible life-saving treatment is offered to a patient and is declined but I have yet to see a viable human embryo refuse an offer by a researcher to be experimented on at will.

Apart from all the sophistry that a well-honed philosopher can come up with, the heart of the matter is whether we believe that a viable human embryo possesses the potential of a human person and if so should we not treat him or her with the due respect. And if in the present climate of frenetic advances in biotechnology we find it "difficult" to justify certain prohibitions with regard to embryo research should we not look to the Church for our guidance particularly if we are ministers in that same Church?