Draft law to protect embryo

A draft law aimed to protect the embryo has been prepared, Health Minister Louis Deguara said.

Both Dr Deguara and Justice Minister Tonio Borg are in favour of such a law being put in place. The draft law has still to be discussed by Cabinet but Dr Borg said he understood the government wanted a law protecting the human embryo. Contacted by The Times, Dr Deguara described the law as "very important" since for the first time it would allow for control, describing the current situation as a "free for all".

Similar concern was raised by Bioethics Consultative Committee chairman Michael Asciak, who said not having a law meant that everything was legal. He said Malta was the only European country without a law protecting the embryo. The Health Minister said he collaborated with Dr Borg to prepare the draft since they were worried that such a delicate issue was not controlled.

A similar vein of thought was expressed by Dr Borg, who said regulation was important also to protect women's health, adding that there are certain health risks associated with assisted procreation.

The issue of bioethics had been discussed in depth by Parliament's Social Affairs Committee last year.

Writing in The Times last week, Dr Asciak said embryonic stem cell research is closer to being allowed and funded by the EU, so the government needed to give more urgency to legislation covering issues surrounding assisted procreation.

He told The Times that at present there were no regulations about the number of embryos implanted, adding that ideally two embryos should be implanted in women under the age of 40 and a maximum of three embryos in older women. Regarding the highly controversial stem cell research, Dr Asciak said the law should state that while adult stem cell research could be allowed, embryonic research should not.

The law should also avoid the freezing of embryos. He referred to recent scientific breakthrough allowing the freezing of ova, saying this could lead to women not having to go through ovarian hyperstimulation (stimulation of the ovaries with fertility drugs to encourage the growth of several eggs) more than once.

Bioethicist Pierre Mallia said legislators were keen to regulate IVF, which is taking place in Malta.

"As a minimum it should follow normative ethics (what Maltese society would accept as a norm ethically)," he said.

When it comes to protecting the embryo before it is implanted in the mother's womb, the law must see to it that everything possible is done to protect an embryo, once a zygote (an early stage in the development of a fertilised egg) has been formed, he said.

"It must stipulate clearly, however, whether the duration of fertilization, when one still has two pro-nuclei, is to be defined as an individual, since the DNA is still separate.

Again, the Church has not expressed an opinion on this, and especially the German Catholic Bishops seem to allow for this," he said, adding that the pre-zygote stage will allow for the diagnosis of severe genetic diseases and could entail eliminating affected pre-zygotes. The local debate is still rather open. Referring to implanted embryos, Dr Mallia said the argument revolved around how many embryos one should fertilize and implant.

"If one considers freezing the embryo as an insult to it, then one should fertilize only those embryos which are to be inserted. The number being considered feasible is two; but some authorities even speak about one. This of course has the limitation of having the mother go through repeated processes."

On the other hand, he argued, freezing an embryo after the mother falls ill during the IVF process should be made available in order to protect the embryo in this case.