The government has rejected an Opposition proposal for surrogate motherhood to be allowed in exceptional cases.

The proposal was made by George Vella during a four-and-a-half-hour sitting to debate the IVF bill today. He made it clear from the onset that the Opposition was not proposing free-for-all surrogacy and “wombs-for-rent”.

However, there could be instances when a mother could no longer carry the embryo in the womb and a relative or a person close to her offered to bring that embryo to term and then give it back to its rightful parents after birth.

Dr Vella argued that the legislator would only be providing for a regulated safe environment, where the embryo could continue to grow. 

Nationalist MP Jean Pierre Farrugia said Malta could not offer everything in “exceptional circumstances”. Surrogacy was illegal in Malta but there could be cases where both prospective parents were still alive after the embryo had been created, but in the meantime the mother suffered a serious illness, such as stroke, and was no longer able to carry that embryo in her womb. Should the Embryo Protection Authority give permission to the parents to travel abroad and implant that embryo in a surrogate mother, once surrogacy was locally illegal? 

During the debate, Dr Vella also noted that if a woman was steadfastly decided to have an abortion, he was duty bound to advise her to seek a place where safe procedures were practiced, for her own well-being.

However, “I would never make her the appointment with that clinic”.

As far as reproductive rights were concerned, women had a fundamental right to access to information, and a couple still had the right of ownership over its embryo.

The debate continues on Monday.