A crucial question central to the IVF debate is when does human life begin? As legislators are being called upon to establish the extent to which IVF shall be practised in Malta, the ongoing discussion seems to reconcile the couples’ needs as well as the protection of the embryo.

On becoming law, the proposed Embryo Protection Act shall either set a precedent wherein the protection of life and human dignity is guaranteed to the embryo from the very moment of conception, or not.

There is a lot at stake here and such claims that there is a distinction between a fertilised egg and an embryo, according to Mark Brincat, deprives the embryo of its fundamental right to life.

The law shall seek to mitigate the dangers of IVF and protect the rights of the newly conceived. How? This may be achieved by protecting the embryo from freezing, selection or manipulation and resort to the freezing of ova instead.

Egg freezing (or oocyte vitrification) overcomes the problem of storing numerous embryos that, in many cases, are forsaken, particularly when conception is achieved after the first transfer. It is pertinent to note that the success rates using frozen ova are equivalent to those using frozen embryos. If this is confirmed by scientific literature, then why are we hesitant to make the best ethical choice?

Unequivocally, to miss the opportunity to build an ethic of caring for the vulnerable, in this case, the embryo, means that we are missing the whole point. In the drafting of health policy as well as in medical practice, the protection of human life cannot be compromised.