Life without fertilisation

I followed with interest the recent debate on TVM in which Lou Bondi, Emmy Bezzina and Pierre Schembri Wismayer participitated. During this televised debate, medical doctor and biologist Dr Schembri Wismayer, a colleague of mine, put forward several medical arguments that I feel may be incorrect and which I believe require further consideration.

He argued that unique human life cannot be initiated without fertilisation, whereas in fact there is mounting evidence that fertilisation is not essential for initiating human embryonic activity, and may therefore prove to be non-consequential in future human reproduction. This is demonstrated in the process of parthenogenesis, in which the gamete of a female is not fertilised by a male sperm, and yet may produce unique stem cells that are not clones of the mother.

In addition, there is no proof that fertilisation is the unique isolated process that marks the definite start of a human life, with all its unique human characteristics. In fact, on the contrary, there is increasing evidence that the formation of unique individual traits starts well before fertilisation. There is evidence that environmental influences on individual traits may even have an effect in the maternal grandmother's uterus where oogenesis is completed or in the mother before fertilisation.

Finally, Dr Schembri Wismayer asserts that he is against abortion, but has no objection to contraceptive use. By this statement he gave the impression that two of the main contraceptives used in Malta today, namely the contraceptive pill and the intra-uterine coil, are non-abortive. This defies scientific proof that both the contraceptive pill and the intra-uterine coil may discourage implantation, and may therefore disrupt the further progression of an individual human existence by preventing the implantation of a fertilised ovum.