Foreign and local experts are drafting a policy for better child protection through a project commissioned and funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with the government's social support agency Appoġġ.

It is hoped the policy makers will make provision also for better protection of unborn children from physical, mental and emotional harm. This, especially, from the inconsiderate consumption and abuse of drugs, alcohol and tobacco by the parents of unborn children during pregnancies; from the exposure to toxic and chemical substances of pregnant mothers and their unborn children at places of work; and from rejection and death through abortion, including overseas abortions.

The protection of unborn children from the easy offers of abortions abroad by foreign doctors on Maltese soil about two years ago left much to be desired.

Maltese laws already give a legal status to unborn children, promote their well-being and protect them from domestic violence of any sort. Among other steps, the policy should consistently and proactively promote the dignity, rights, protection and the wholesome development of about 4,000 unborn children every year on all means of communication. This will be a very wise and useful investment in the upbringing and development of our children, not from birth but from conception. Maltese society has much to gain, also financially, from shifting its attention from birth of children to the conception of unborn children.

It should also make parents of unborn children much more aware of the unique privilege they enjoy, as equal partners, in the conception of their unborn child; of the special opportunity parents have to help their unborn child develop, from the moment of conception, its full potential and its personality; and of the big responsibility they, and the political, medical, industrial, legal, educational, social and other agents, carry to protect unborn children from all physical, mental and emotional harm until these children are born.