Correct climate for the unborn
Speaking on sustainable development in Parliament, former Cabinet minister Jesmond Mugliett called for a culture change on the matter (March 9). Interjecting, Environment Minister Mario de Marco said the Bill before Parliament integrated various...
Speaking on sustainable development in Parliament, former Cabinet minister Jesmond Mugliett called for a culture change on the matter (March 9).
Interjecting, Environment Minister Mario de Marco said the Bill before Parliament integrated various governmental entities in ensuring sustainable development and, while the private sector was not included, a guardian for future generations was being introduced.
Continuing, Mr Mugliett retorted that one still did not know how the guardian for future generations would work. He added that though “... Malta could not change the climate, it still had to do its part”. “A focused agency should be introduced,” he said “and all sectors of society should work for sustainable development.”
Carmel Cacopardo, the spokesman on sustainable development for Alternattiva Demokratika, the green party, said in an article entitled A Green Agenda: Future Generations Must Be Heard (August 27, 2011) that “the guardian of future generations would be the voice of those still unborn to defend their right to make their own choices, independently of the choices of present and past generations”.
Parliament should consider the sustainable development of the unborn children when still in the womb – 4,000 of them every year in Malta and Gozo – besides that of future generations not yet conceived. Unborn children in the womb cannot “defend their rights to make their own choices”.
The development of the unborn child in the womb cannot be normal, not sustainable at all, if and when the parents consume drugs, alcohol and tobacco immediately before and/or during the pregnancy.
The TV chat show Bondì+ tackled the issue of the unborn child last December 22 (www.di-ve.com). The programme opened with Lou Bondì declaring that the year before 11 newborns were put on methadone because the parents were taking drugs before or during the pregnancy.
Similarly, the development of the unborn child in the womb cannot be normal, nor sustainable, if the parents are exposed to toxic and chemical substances at their place of work.
In 2009, we had a mother who went to court alleging that her newborn baby died because she was exposed to chemicals at her place of work.
Apparently, the court case had the same fate of the newborn! Too bad for defining and defending the rights, health and lives of unborn children. Something seems to have gone wrong somewhere.
On June 28, 2010, the International Society of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine (ISPPM) declared that “it is devoted to the initial phase of human development – prenatal and perinatal life”.
The society considers this earliest stage of life as the first ecological position of the human being and the womb as its first ecological environment.
It perceives pregnancy to be a period of active and continuous dialogue between the prenatal child, the mother and her psycho-social environment. From a holistic view, human life is recognised as an indivisible entity and continuum of all human functions, both physical and psychological, in which no division between “body” and “mind” can be made.
Parliament should clearly define the special role the guardian for future generations would play for the unborn child in the womb when the concept is introduced in the law on sustainable development.
The health and safety law of 1996, the Domestic Violence Law of 2006, the Commissioner for Children, Aġenzija Appoġġ of the Foundation of Social Welfare Services and the Malta Unborn Child Movement can help Parliament chart the best possible protection for the sustainable development of the unborn child in the womb in the Maltese islands.
Mr Mugliett said that Malta could not change the climate. His suggestion for the setting up of a “focused agency” in which all sectors of society would work together for sustainable develop-ment can definitely change the negative climate in the womb for the unborn child into a positive one.
This can be by the coordinated action of all the various government and other entities, perhaps brought together in such focused agency, that will be committed to bring about the wholesome and sustainable developoment of the unborn child in the Maltese islands as also indicated by ISPPM.
The author is coordinator of the Malta Unborn Child Movement.