A few days ago, Legal Notice 156/2017, which was challenged by most of the Opposition on grounds of manifest legal inconsistency with regard to the Embryo Protection Act, regrettably was passed in Parliament.

Employers are now forced to grant a maximum of 100 hours leave to a couple seeking to undergo IVF treatment.

Also, the definition of “prospective parent” in the relative legal notice differs significantly from the definition found in the Embryo Protection Act, which, among other things, regulates IVF in Malta.

Of course, the law does not oblige couples who intend to receive this treatment to do so in Malta. The obvious result of this is that couples may undergo this treatment in foreign jurisdictions, where practices such as embryo freezing and gamete donation, which are justly illegal in Malta, have been legalised.

Astonishingly, this legal notice is sanctioning the carrying out of a procedure that is illegal locally, so long as this is not done in Malta. One would imagine that any sane legislature would reason that something should either be embraced by law or firmly rejected. Instead, by defeating the challenge to the legal notice, Parliament has legislated a prime example of moral relativism in that it turns a blind eye to illegality, so long as this is not done within the State’s jurisdiction.

To make matters worse, the State is mandating the granting of paid leave for this purpose – that is to say for the purpose of carrying out an illegality.