IVF experts are being enticed to work in Malta with the introduction of new tax incentives as Parliament debates controversial changes to the law regulating the technology.
Under a legal notice passed last week, embryologists and other assisted reproductive technology professionals will be made eligible for the Highly Qualified Persons scheme, which offers a special 15 per cent tax rate for professional expatriates filling high-level posts in key economic sectors.
The scheme, introduced in 2011 to attract foreign workers to Malta, has until now been open to employees within the financial, gaming and aviation sectors.
Government agreed that the sensitive issue should be discussed calmly
It will now be extended to embryologists – clinical scientists in fertility treatment and reproductive research – as well as responsible persons and lead project managers working with companies in the assisted reproductive technology sector.
The scheme will be regulated by the government’s Chief Medical Officer.
A spokeswoman for the Finance Ministry, which published the legal notice, directed questions on the reasoning behind the changes to the Health Ministry, whose spokeswoman said the legal notice was intended to introduce a resident embryologist at Mater Dei Hospital and reduce the dependence on the two visiting embryologists currently employed.
The new regulations come ahead of a third reading in Parliament of a Bill introducing sweeping changes to the Embryo Protection Act which will lift the existing ban on egg and sperm donation, as well as embryo freezing. The Bill would also widen access to treatment for same-sex couples and kick-start a public consultation on surrogacy.
Proponents of the legal changes say they are needed to help infertile couples conceive, and that unused embryos will be adopted. Pro-life groups, which rallied in Valletta on Sunday, have called the change “abhorrent” and said it will lead to unused embryos going to waste.
Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia has said he will reverse the changes if in government, while President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca has expressed concern over the “hostility” stemming from the debate and appealed for a “calm and longer period of reflection”.
The government said last week it had noted the President’s concerns and agreed that the sensitive issue should be discussed calmly and without hostility, but reiterated its commitment to amend the law “without undue delay”, in view of its electoral mandate.