Church leaves door ajar to IVF

Artificial fertilisation should only be allowed if it does not involve harming, destroying, freezing or experimenting on the human embryo at any stage - and if such a method is possible, it should only be used by married couples who do not require third-party donations, the Curia said yesterday.

In a press statement by the Theological Commission, the Church declared that the human embryo should at no stage be used as a "piece of biological material".

Many experts were afraid that the Vatican's latest document Dignitas Personae (The Dignity of the Person), published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on December 12, would postpone the regulation of IVF in Malta, since it condemned such artificial fertilisation, human cloning and embryonic stem cell research.

Recommendations on biotechnology have been in gestation for three years and are under discussion within the Bioethics Consultative Committee and the Social Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives.

The recommendations were never adopted largely because of the sensitive nature of the subject. In fact, even recently the Social Policy Minister John Dalli, when faced with a chorus of experts calling for legislation, said: "This country has its values, and although we want to modernise society as much as possible, this does not mean damaging it."

But the Vatican document spurred people like bioethics expert Fr Peter Serracino Inglott to bring up the issue again and push the government to finalise the recommendations. He pointed out that Pope Benedict XVI himself had said that a country's legislation need not be in conformity with moral principles.

The Curia's statement appears not to rule out the practice completely. In fact, it was welcomed by a number of experts in the field who have long been calling for the government to regulate in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Josie Muscat, director of St James Hospital, where IVF is practiced, said that because of the moral issue involved, the hospital does not keep embryos frozen, and therefore he agrees with the Church's stand 100 per cent.

The moral problem with fertilisation done outside the womb is that a number of embryos tend to be kept in reserve to be used if the first attempt is not successful - but if it is successful, these embryos are destroyed.

But at St James, instead of trying to fertilise 10 eggs and implanting two while keeping the rest frozen, they try to fertilise three eggs and transfer all of them. Therefore, no embryo is ever harmed, destroyed or frozen. Dr Muscat explained that St James had a 45 per cent success rate which was higher than most countries abroad and that their method is no less efficient than any others.

Labour spokesman for social affairs Michael Farrugia, who was recently very vocally in favour of IVF and its regulation, welcomed the Church's statement but did not say whether he agreed with it fully.

"At least we all agree now that IVF should be available and practised in Malta but that it should also be regulated. We will now wait for the government's proposals to see if they are practical and realistic."

Mr Farrugia added that IVF can be done in a manner by which the embryos are not kept in reserve, but that this means it is less efficient, because the process has to be repeated until it is successful.

When contacted, Fr Serracino Inglott said that he had no ethical dilemma with freezing reserve embryos as long as they are left to die naturally rather than being actively destroyed.

However, he said, it is possible to carry out artificial fertilisation by using one embryo at a time rather than taking reserves.

In its statement, the Church said the state had the duty to safeguard the family as the basic cell of society, as well as the right of the child to be conceived, born and raised by its parents in its natural environment which is the family."

"Civil legislation should not approve of procreative techniques which involve the donation of gametes between individuals who are not legally bound to each other by marriage."

Experimentation on human embryos for scientific research, destroying them because they are extra or because they cannot develop normally, and freezing them to be implanted shortly "all go counter to the dignity and the integrity of human life".

The Church said that while the great strides in biotechnology have brought about great hopes, they have also created new threats and risks to human life, "especially in its initial stages, when it is weak and defenceless".

Dignitas Personae aimed not to hinder scientific and technological progress but "to defend human life when this is threatened by the irresponsible use of certain methods of assisted procreation, by the diagnosis of fertilised embryos in the laboratory during the IVF process, and by the research on stem cells."

The Church added that the laws of a country should ensure that the new methods of human procreation respect the dignity and the rights of the human person.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com