IVF draft law by summer

A Bill on assisted procreation is being drafted by the Bioethics Consultative Committee and should be ready by summer, The Times has learnt.

The Bill is based on recommendations made by Parliament's Social Affairs Committee in July 2005, Bioethics Consultative Committee chairman Michael Asciak said.

"We are using the parliamentary committee's report as our standard, although the draft law might vary slightly," he said.

The news comes after Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Agius on Monday urged the government to stop dragging its feet on the issue as it had been doing for too long. He was speaking during a meeting of the House Social Affairs Committee.

In January, The Times had reported that a law regulating IVF and biotechnology was being drafted but no deadline had been set for its presentation in Parliament.

Dr Asciak said yesterday that Social Policy Minister John Dalli, through Health Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar, had asked the consultative committee to draft the Bill, which should be ready "soon."

In an in-depth report on the use of biotechnology, genetic technology and assisted fertilisation, penned by former chairman Clyde Puli, the parliamentary committee had proposed a law that gives the embryo a moral and legal status by not later than the phase of conception, which is when the two nuclei of the sperm and the egg fuse to form the single cell of a new human life.

The committee had recommended that in vitro fertilisation be offered to married heterosexual couples or those in a stable relationship. It had also accepted Polar Body Biopsy, which are tests on the DNA from the ovum in case of serious diseases.

The committee had published the report following an eight-month discussion that had become embroiled in controversy when former Children's Commissioner Sonia Camilleri argued that people should not have the right to have a child at all costs. She had also said IVF should be banned because research could not yet guarantee a healthy life for children born through the process.

The issue was now being discussed by the parliamentary committee following a hard-hitting document on IVF published by the Vatican in December.

The Holy See's document, Dignitatis Personae (Dignity Of The Person), condemned artificial fertilisation, human cloning, designer babies, embryonic stem cell research, the morning-after pill and RU-486, a drug which blocks the action of the needed hormones to keep fertilised eggs implanted in the womb. It was an update of a 1987 document called Donum Vitae (Gift Of Life).

The parliamentary committee on Monday heard Rev, Prof. Agius, dean of the Faculty of Theology say that the previous committee had made some positive recommendations and suggestions.

He also said the Church could not remain neutral in the face of speedy developments in bioethics and reproductive technology.

Rev. Prof. Agius was asked by committee chairman Edwin Vassallo to analyse the previous committee's recommendations in view of Dignitatis Personae and point out any contradictions.

Questioned about this decision, Mr Vassallo ruled out changing Mr Puli's report, adding that he had asked for an explanation of the teachings of the Church and whether there were any parts of the report that diverged from these teachings.

"I don't intend to make any changes to the report. It should stay as is," he said, adding that he wanted MPs and those drafting the law to have all the necessary information before voting in Parliament on this issue.

He said that if the Holy See issued more documents before the law was enacted, these would have to be analysed well.