When a child is conceived – at the very same instant – the woman has become a mother and the man a father. A mother and father are biologically related to the newly conceived child, a new relationship comes into being, bound by bonds of kinship. Denying one’s responsibility towards this new nascent human life does not alter or cancel this innate process that happens every time a new life comes into being.
The much-touted advanced age of artificial reproductive technologies without the restrictions of a moral compass attempts to sever these bonds, these bloodlines that are at the heart of families.
Recent suggestions aimed at revamping the Embryo Protection Act make light of such a grave issue. In an attempt to sell a liberal IVF aimed at achieving a pregnancy at any cost, it is the newly conceived human embryo who will suffer the brunt of these consequences.
If IVF becomes accessible to singles or lesbian couples as mentioned, the newly conceived human embryo will become an orphan at conception. In the process of making egg or sperm donation freely available, for whatever reason, we intentionally deprive the child of at least one of his biological parents.
With third party reproduction, the picture changes further still. Now we have a man donating his sperm or a woman donating her egg, with no interest in this created child.
If IVF becomes accessible to singles or lesbian couples, the newly conceived human embryo will become an orphan at conception
The human embryo, devoid of any protection, in cold clinical conditions, is analysed for any ‘abnormalities’. Defective embryos, if detected, are not transferred but ‘frozen’ indefinitely. This new life could then be transferred to the uterus of yet another person.
The child born of these techniques is at birth intentionally deprived of knowing the biological father, mother or both and is raised by others, the ‘social parents’ or ‘commissioning couple’. The best interests of the child do not even feature in this equation.
These multi-parenting schemes prejudice the child from ever experiencing the motherhood and fatherhood bonds so necessary for the holistic psychological well-being of the child. How many parents will be listed on the child’s birth certificate? Who will be the legal guardian of the child with parental rights?
Many studies and articles are bringing to light the pain and psychological trauma that children suffer in these created relationships. Children grow up and, in so doing, themselves speak out against the injustice that has been done to them. They speak out against severed kinship bonds - the intentional deprivation of knowing one’s roots, genetic relationships and history.
Kinship bonds matter. It is an intrinsic need to know one’s roots and ancestry.
Alex Haley, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Roots: The saga of an American family, states that “In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.”
One quote I found from a child born of an anonymous sperm donation shows us the priorities often neglected: “The family unit is recognised as the greatest factor in our lives. It is important to recognise that sociological and biological fathers can be two separate things. And while a family is what you make of it, there is however a basis to the phrase ‘blood is thicker than water’. Genetic connectedness are ties that bind.”
Haley’s profound reflection says it all: “In all of us there is a hunger, narrow and deep, to know our heritage, to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is a vacuum, an emptiness and a most disquieting loneliness!”
In many countries, anonymous donor conception is being outlawed as grown children continue to speak out. All these issues were studied when the Embryo Protection Act was enacted. Nothing has changed.
How can we consider eliminating all these safeguards suddenly just because a women’s group pronounces itself for change without considering any of these ethical issues? How can we just erase these vital kinship bonds?
Where is the voice of the embryo protection authority whose role it is to speak out for the embryo? It is certainly conspicuous by its deafening silence.
It is indeed worrying that such grave matters of life-giving services such as IVF are being discussed in the summer recess. It is also sinister that the powers that be are so set on altering this law at the same time as pro-choice arguments for abortion are being heard.
In this scenario, my appeal goes to our members of Parliament to stand up and be counted, for them to see the blood-soaked trail from the gradualist approach of removing human embryo protection, to freezing of embryos, to dismembering our unborn children by abortion.
chairman@lifenetwork.eu
Miriam Sciberras is chairman of Life Network Malta.