The Church's Cana Movement warned today that the legalisation of IVF by other countries had opened the way for abortion.

The movement's comment was made in a reaction to the government's draft bill for the regulation of IVF.

The movement welcomed the joint pastoral letter by Bishops Paul Cremona and Mario Grech. It insisted that the human being was not a product or an object but the fruit of the conjugal union of a  man and a woman. A human being was recognised as such from the first moment of conception and deserved protection as of that stage. 

The movement said it would continue to support couples having infertility problems through its  Wanting and Waiting Group. However having a child was not a gift which everyone would receive. 

"The Cana Movement recognises that wherever IVF was introduced, this led to many abuses and opened the way for abortion," the movement said, adding that not everything that was technically and medically possible was ethically or morally acceptable. 

It said that science, ethics and faith could work together and scientists should therefore continue their research to help infertile couples in a way which was morally and ethically correct such as Natural Procreative Technology (NAPRO).

Every medical intervention had to respect the human being, the unity of marriage and the family and the dignity of human sexuality, Cana said.