Assisting the formation of several IVF embryos and then freezing any ‘extra’ ones will definitely increase the success rate of IVF cycles, which is good news for couples undergoing this procedure. As with everything in life, someone will pay the price.
In countries where freezing of embryos is already being done, embryos accumulate over time and those that have been frozen for a long time are thrown away. This means essentially killing them off.
This will be the fate of a lot of embryos, because the couples who will accept embryo adoption will be few compared with those who will try IVF using their own gametes. This is essentially just postponing throwing ‘extra embryos’ away to make it possible to increase thesuccess of IVF.
Infertility is a very painful experience and I fear that too many couples will be willing to increase their chances of successful IVF by allowing more embryos than they would require to form and then allowing their adoption.
These couples will have to face the possibility that someone else has managed to have successful pregnancies with their embryos while they did or possibly didn’t. They will also obviously wonder whether their ‘extra’ ones were used or thrown away – i.e., killed.
In your report about this proposal (October 17), the possibility of biological siblings meeting and forming relationships in the future was not even mentioned. One needs to realise that with such a small population as in Malta the chances of this happening are significant. This has the potential to create a lot of suffering for many.
Like all adopted children, most IVF children will want to know their biological parents anyway. Will their parents even tell them they are not biologically theirs? How does this report propose to deal with these issues, if at all? Assuring traceability of data is not enough, especially in a country so small where ‘everyone’ is an acquaintance.
Fr Peter Serracino Inglott has been quoted as saying that while he can understand that people will question the morality of putting these embryos in a state where they will ‘probably die’ with time, he does not think it is the state’s role to decide, based on this.
One has to be careful not to misuse this quote as a go-ahead from a priest, philosopher and moralistthat this is right. He is simply expressing his opinion about the role of the government.
When one weighs the benefits of increasing the chances of successful IVF against these issues, especially the ‘postponed’ throwing away of so many embryos, one realises that this is not a win-win situation for all, as it is being presented.
Who will gain most – the service providers or couples? Whoever does, it will be at the expense of Malta accepting that some of its embryos are surplus and can be thrown away, as in other countries.
I hope this issue will not be put on the back burner in a country taken up with divorce!