Updated 5.55pm with paediatricians' reaction

The discussion on the amendments to the IVF legislation should be more tolerant of contrasting views and there should be no space for fundamentalism, Alternattiva Demokratika said on Saturday.

"In matters of contrasting ethical values it is essential that the proposed law itself respects this. For this purpose it is proposed that those who on grounds of conscience do not want to make use of the embryo freezing process should have their opinion respected and therefore they should have a right to an opt-out from this procedure," AD said in a statement.

AD chairman Carmel Cacopardo and secretary Ralph Cassar released a position paper to overcome the impasse on the IVF law.

The party said it agrees with the aims and main thrust of the amendments, which open up access to IVF.

At all times the right to information should be upheld. This applies to both the person who will receive the donation of sperm or egg as well as any child born as a result of the IVF procedure. This right means that the identity of the person making the donation should be known to the person in receipt of the donation.

Even children born following the IVF procedure, when attaining 16 years of age should have the right to know the identity of their natural parents, AD said.

Read: Embryo freezing is ‘a must’, couples suffering in silence - lab director

It is necessary to have procedures in place for sperm and egg screening for genetically transmitted diseases. While understanding fully that surrogacy is being proposed under the condition that it is not commercialised, it still remains unclear as to how this will be done, the Green Party said.

"We need to respect each other's opinions without attributing ulterior motives, especially in such sensitive and personal issues. Obviously, the more sensitive the issues the more it is necessary to discuss with respect. When people agree, respect comes easy. A society that embraces ethical pluralism is no place for any kind of fundamentalism," they said.

Former Labour minister George Vella, a specialist in family medicine, had branded the Bill “a complete travesty of ethics, morality and human dignity allegedly to remove ‘discrimination’ imposed by nature”.

Safeguard human rights of every embryo - MPA

Meanwhile, the Maltese Paediatric Association appealed to MPs to safeguard the human rights of every embryo in the amendments to the Embryo Protection Act.

The association noted with satisfaction that the problem of higher order pregnancies, with the associated medical risks to the child, has been practically resolved through the application of the current Embryo Protection Act.

Furthermore a general meeting approved a resolution underlining three fundamental rights of every embryo, namely that:

- None of the embryos are denied the right to live or have their right to live suspended or endangered as would occur with embryo freezing;

- All embryos should have an equal right to be brought up by their natural parents; 

- Individuals born through IVF should have the right to know the identity of their biological parents in order to prevent them having children from potentially biological relatives as this would drastically increase the risk of genetic defects in their children, with all the associated human suffering this brings.

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