Nationalist MP Jean Pierre Farrugia's statement that he would be allocating part of his MP salary rise towards fiscal incentives to encourage couples to implant or adopt frozen human embryos left over after IVF treatment is being strongly objected to by the Gift of Life Foundation.

Dr Farrugia said yesterday he would be donating the raise to the Stefano Borgonovo Foundation for research on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. He also said that as president of the House committee which had discussed assisted procreation, once a new law is enacted , he would also start up a fund to give fiscal incentives so that all frozen embryos would be implanted in the womb of biological or adoptive mothers.

Gift of Life said that Dr Farrugia's statement in this regard was an admission that the recent recommendations made by the parliamentary select committee on assisted procreation to allow for regular freezing of human embryos as part of regular IVF treatment, would result in unavoidable stockpiles of unwanted human embryos - presenting the country with an ethical quandary.

Dr Farrugia, it said, had in the past weeks vigorously defended the position that the adoption mechanism proposed by the committee for stored frozen embryos would somehow resolve this problem in its entirety. He was now suggesting that couples should be incentivised through fiscal measures to have these stored frozen embryos implanted or adopted.

"Once the absolute respect, value and dignity of human life from conception are lost, it is only a matter of time before other equally disturbing ideas are considered as society degrades morally.

"Incentivising women to implant frozen embryos, whether through private or public funds is ethically wrong on numerous levels.

"Society as a whole frowns upon the trading of human organs donation for the same reasons.

"Tax payers' money is also paid by people who may disagree with the concept of freezing of embryos. Human life is not a commodity that can be bought or sold.

"This suggestion is analogous to the exploitation of human embryos," Gift of Life said.