There are two possible approaches to affirming the inviolability of the human embryo: one based on science and reason, the other assuming belief in God. They converge in concluding that it is morally wrong to discard or freeze the human embryo.

The argument based on science and reason runs as follows.

There is abundant scientific evidence that a human individual’s life begins at conception. Gametes from the man and woman fuse and, at that moment, a new cell comes into being: within it, a highly complex cascade of biological processes is triggered and a new unit emerges, distinct from the two parents. It grows gradually within the mother’s womb.

Some argue the embryo is not yet human, becoming so only later. Neurobiologist Maureen Condic (the University of Utah) responds: “Linking human status to the nature of developing embryos is neither subjective nor open to personal opinion. Human embryos are living human beings precisely because they possess the single defining feature of human life that is lost in the moment of death – the ability to function as a coordinated organism rather than merely as a group of living human cells.”

Science, thus, affirms human embryos as living human beings.

It would be arbitrary to affirm mere gradation between the embryo, foetus, child and adult.

All have the same human status and equal dignity that ought to be respected from conception to death.

Now, human beings, endowed with freedom, are able to give a direction to their existence. Exercising that freedom, they are moral agents – the only beings capable of taking decisions based on what they consider objectively right or wrong, even against their own interests.

Terminating the life of a moral agent is heinous. It is therefore unjustifiable to kill an adult or child, to abort the human foetus and to freeze the embryo (taking the serious risk of its being later willingly discarded or negligently left to die).

While affirming what science and reason recognise, the argument based on religious belief goes further. Although the presence of a spiritual soul cannot be observed experimentally, what science concludes concerning the human embryo already gives valuable indications for discerning, by the use of reason, a personal presence at the moment of the first appearance of human life.

In standing by the sacredness of the human embryo, Parliament would be respecting scientific findings,reason and religious belief

St John Paul II wrote that “human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves ‘the creative action of God’… God alone is the Lord of life, from beginning to end, and nobody may, in any circumstance, claim for himself or herself the right to destroy directly an innocent human being… [this] sets forth the central content of God’s revelation on the sacredness and inviolability of human life”.

Human beings are created by God, his children! Their “spiritual genetic code” binds them indissolubly to their Creator. Even the human embryo is inviolable.

St John Paul II also taught: “The deliberate decision to deprive innocent human beings of their life is always morally evil and can never be licit either as an end in itself or as a means to a good end.”

The legal changes mentioned in the current IVF debate, intended to minimise embarrassment for adults, would involve human embryo freezing being used, precisely, as the “means to a good end”, which is immoral.

The embryo’s life ought instead to take precedence over the well-being of adults.

Regarding another life issue, it was arbitrarily argued recently that “traditional religious beliefs should play no part in the debate” whether to allow euthanasia. The same would presumably apply to debates on abortion and human embryo freezing.

But that would imply that Parliament would, in principle, base decisions only on rationalistic values, totally ignoring the religious values of a large part of Maltese society. To my knowledge, no such unjustifiable distinction was made at Westminster, the mother of all parliaments, when it recently discussed and rejected a euthanasia Bill.

Very many Maltese hope that Parliament will not amend the Embryo Protection Act to permit embryo freezing.

In standing instead by the sacredness of the human embryo presently enshrined in Maltese law, Parliament would be respecting scientific findings, reason and religious belief.

Fr Robert Soler is a member of the Society of Jesus.