The proposed law on in-vitro fertilisation may have to be changed to allow for the fertilisation of more than two eggs, according to the Justice Minister.
Chris Said, who is piloting the Embryo Protection Bill, explained yesterday that, after talks with medical professionals, the two-egg limit might have to be increased to three in cases involving older women.
It was the first concrete example of the “fine-tuning” Dr Said spoke about after the Bill was published last month.
The Bill makes it illegal for doctors to “intentionally fertilise more than two eggs” in one treatment cycle. It also says that “all embryos” produced in one cycle have to be transferred to the woman.
The Bill does not allow embryo freezing except in cases of “grave and certified force majeure not predictable at the moment of fertilisation”.
It is unclear whether the production of a third embryo (if all three eggs are successfully fertilised) in cases involving older women will be interpreted as force majeure, leading to one embryo being frozen.
Dr Said insisted during a press conference that the Bill’s main principles, such as the protection of the embryo and the ban on egg and sperm donation, would not be compromised.
He said the ban on gamete donations, a sticking point for sterile couples and gay partners, was in the best interest of children who had a right to know who their biological parents were.
The press conference was also addressed by Eleonora Porcu, an Italian IVF expert brought over by the government, who said the limit of two fertilised eggs was the most restrictive limit she knew of.
However, she added, her Bologna fertility clinic had adopted the same practice for patients aged under-35. The pregnancy success rate using fresh eggs, fertilised soon after being harvested, was 33 per cent, she said. This declined to 26 per cent when frozen eggs were used.
Health Minister Joseph Cassar said it was important to offer infertile couples a ray of hope and this was what the government was doing with this Bill.
‘IVF opens way for abortion’
In a strongly worded statement, the Church’s Cana Movement yesterday said that wherever IVF was introduced it opened the way for abortion.
Following in the footsteps of the Bishops’ pastoral letter on IVF two weeks ago, the movement said that not everything that was “technically and medically possible was ethically and morally correct”.
It urged scientists to focus their efforts on natural procreative technology that was ethically and morally correct because it respected the couple’s dignity and sexuality.