Updated - Adds comments by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat -

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat referred to proposals on embryo freezing today, saying in reply to questions that he had always backed the use of technology to enable all couples who wished to have children to be able to do so.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Marlene Farrugia on Facebook said she is against embryo freezing .

"I will not support the introduction of any law that compromises the protection of any born or unborn child. We have enough carnage of children as it is.
Whether we kill them or abuse them while still unborn, that is during gestation, or after they are born, like little Aylan washed up lifeless on the beach... it remains a cold-blooded murder of the innocent," she said.

"Embryo freezing will open the floodgates to embryo disposal.

The introduction of embryo freezing was raised last month in proposals by Nisa Laburisti to changes to the IVF law.

Life Network Malta in a statement this morning said it highly concerned about comments by the Prime Minister in the context of a story in MaltaToday yesterday indicating that embryo freezing is to be introduced as a matter of course, as will egg donation and sperm donation.

Life Network is a Pro-Life organisation whose purpose is to give voice to life issues.

"It is claimed that success rates will be increased with freezing. This is an incorrect interpretation of the facts. Recent statistics have clearly shown that the success rate with vitrification of ova is at least as high," the network said.

"There is no mention of the fundamental issue of human embryo protection in the proposed changes. Intentional freezing of human life is a grave offence to intentionally created human life. This notwithstanding the fact that, according to official statistics, we currently employ a technique that is giving good results without the need to freeze embryos," it added.

"There is no mention of the best interests of the child born of donor egg and donor sperm technologies. This is a grave injustice to the child who, with no vote and defenceless, will be orphaned at conception."

The network said that if the article is correct, the Inter Ministerial committee set up to review the proposed changes to the IVF law was nothing more than a smokescreen, and the wide consultations supposedly held with the public nothing but a farce.

"Life Network Malta appeals to the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and all MPs who are Pro-life to resist any changes that could endanger or objectify nascent human life. The devaluation of human embryonic life sets us on the downward spiral that inevitably leads to abortion," it warned.

"Malta should be proud of the techniques and pregnancy success rates we have achieved without sacrificing human embryonic lives in the process, particularly in the face of pressure from countries who legislate for abortion and who have long abandoned any respect for human embryonic lives.

"The freezing of embryos and their subsequent disposal after a number of years, is no more than another form of abortion - this time carried out outside the womb.

"Furthermore, sperm and egg donation, as well as surrogacy, creates children with anonymous parents. Children have a right to know their parents; children are not toys or objects of convenience, which can be bought or sold on a whim."

Meanwhile, when questioned today, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said his position was always about facilitating ways for couples who wanted children to be able to have them.  

"If we can use technology to help couples have children, we should do so," Dr Muscat said. 

"We want to use cutting edge technology while respecting ethical values."