Replying to my letter published on January 23, Jean Pierre Farrugia, Frans Agius and Michael Farrugia, former chairman and members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Assisted Procreation (The Sunday Times, January 30), quoted a decision of the Italian Constitutional Court on assisted procreation given in a proceeding in which I participated as a lawyer.

The three MPs stressed that this decision increased the number of exceptional circumstances in which the relevant Italian legislation allows embryo freezing.

For reasons of space I cannot highlight the errors in such a judgment. However, the fact remains that embryo freezing in Italy is a mere exception to a general prohibition (as provided by art. 14, para 1 of law No. 40 of 2004, by virtue of which “È vietata la crioconservazione e la soppressione di embrioni”).

Moreover, when such an exception is allowed it is followed by embryo implantation and by the prohibition of embryo selection. I would like to clarify some other reasons why assisted procreation is, in itself, a serious violation of the dignity of the human person.

IVF techniques allow for the separation of the physical union of a man and a woman and procreation. The latter is tantamount to becoming a product, as in the production of a car or a computer. Man is thus reduced to being treated as a thing.

Furthermore, in order to achieve a ‘positive’ result – the birth of a child – artificial reproductive techniques, apart from at times taking years to be successful at enormous cost, also result in the destruction of around nine out of every 10 embryos created.

Finally, one has to consider the stress to which a woman is submitted, be it psychological, and/or physical, because of hyperstimulation and fertility treatment.

The IVF process is run on a system of investment and profits. As a result, it is designed to focus attention away from the main protagonist, that is, the unborn, to the industrial production of babies with what are then conveniently termed as being acceptable costs.