More than 60 professionals from a variety of fields have formed a lobby group to oppose the introduction of embryo freezing in IVF procedures.
Launched yesterday, Professionals Against Embryo Freezing (PAEF) was conceived in reaction to a proposal, made by the ad hoc Parliamentary Committee on Assisted Procreation, to set up a national embryo freezing service. PAEF is made up of scientists, teachers, social workers, pharmacists, nurses, doctors and dentists.
The group’s main argument, coordinator Miriam Sciberras said yesterday, was that “embryos are the earliest form of human life and have the right to be treated with the dignity due to all human beings from the moment of conception”.
Embryos are frozen where an in vitro fertilisation produces more embryos than needed. Because of the low success rate of IVF implantations, the frozen embryos could be used in other cycles, thus giving couples with fertility problems a better chance of having a child. However, this has proven to be an ethical headache as thousands of unwanted frozen embryos stored abroad were eventually destroyed or used for research purposes.
In Malta, this is not the case and this is the way PAEF wants it to stay: “At present, in Malta, all embryos produced by IVF are implanted so as to give them an equal chance to develop fully,” it said.
“We, as a lobby group that values human life from its very beginning, strongly reiterate that the IVF legislation under discussion in our country should continue to affirm this practice.
“We acknowledge the need for regulation in this field. However, we strongly believe the process of IVF should not include the option of embryo freezing.”
Asked whether they considered the practical and financial benefits of the couple seeking IVF to have embryos frozen, Pierre Schembri Wismayer, head of the University’s Anatomy Department, said that, while he recognised that the success rate of IVF was not that high, “no price could justify the disrespect of human life. Yes, there is a chance of needing to undergo more than one IVF cycle but this reason does not stand up when you’re discussing a human life.
“Our position is that if you consider that embryo as a human life, it has to be treated with respect... You don’t go and freeze your friend and the life of the embryo has to be treated that way. It’s not a matter of money or practicality, it’s a matter of principle.”
The group will now be focusing its efforts on lobbying Parliament against embryo freezing.
Jean-Pierre Farrugia, Nationalist MP and chairman of the ad hoc Committee that proposed embryo freezing, admitted he himself, as a Catholic medical doctor, had his reservations on the topic. But, he said, wherever his Committee turned to, be it medical experts or fertility counsellors, freezing turned out to be the lesser of two evils.
While agreeing that freezing would ideally be avoided, Dr Farrugia argued the issue was not absolute and clear cut.
“In this field everything is relative. This is about whether to freeze an embryo, which would have been only a couple of hours old, or whether to compromise the life of a 24-week foetus who, because of a multiple pregnancy, risks death or cerebral palsy,” Dr Farrugia said.
Pro-life movement Gift of Life welcomed the new group.