The strategy adopted by the government to market the introduction of embryo freezing, the hiring of one’s womb (aka surrogacy) and the exchange of sperm and ova, smacks of a strategy concocted by Screwtape with the help of the Artful Dodger.
The Artful Dodger, a creation of Dickens, represents those who through the use of crafty and cunning means try to get out of difficult situations while conning people. Screwtape was conceived by C.S. Lewis as a wily devil tutoring inexperienced devils that the corruption of the human language is the mother of all the weapons they have at their disposal. Say things that would appear quite harmless but in reality they can be deadly, and use words that can be understood in different ways, Screwtape used to teach the infernal novices.
Recently Minister Helena Dalli revealed an Artful Dodger trick used by the government to legalize same-sex marriage. Addressing the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, she laughed heartily, saying that people did not understand what the Labour Party had in mind when in its 2013 electoral manifesto they used the word ‘equality’. The Department of Information quite naturally censored her words but the videoing of the conference by the United Nations gave the game away.
Parents now have to discriminate between embryos by deciding who of their children should live and who should be frozen
The Prime Minister is now playing the ‘equality’ game with the amendments to the Embryo Protection Act – a misnomer that makes Screwtape euphoric. One cannot eat from the plate of equality one day but refuse to eat from it on a different day, he eloquently told the enthusiastic crowd of supporters last Sunday. I don’t know whether these people whom Minister Dalli ridiculed in front of the United Nations delegates understood what the Prime Minister meant by equality but this certainly was an example of doublespeak.
The Artful Dodger would have been amused had he been there. Screwtape would have been ecstatic. He specialised in the use of words that could be made to mean exactly the opposite of their normal meaning. The government’s amendments are, in fact, causing discrimination, not equality. Parents now have to discriminate between embryos by deciding who of their children should live and who should be frozen.
More Dodger business… the government and its internet trolls are cunningly framing the Bill as something it is not. Now, the mantra goes, infertile couples can have children. And who can be against infertile couples having children? This is simply not true. Infertile couples have been using the IVF services of Mater Dei for years. Up till now, couples could fertilise the number of eggs that could be implanted. Now they will be able to fertilise more eggs than can be implanted. The extra eggs will be frozen, thus creating the grave ethical and psychological problems that come along with freezing.
The government opted to go down this route instead of enhancing the resources to freeze eggs instead of embryos. Why has the government decided not to go down this safe route? This is the second policy decision against the best interest of embryos taken by the government within the space of a few weeks. The first one was the decision to strike out of the domestic violence Act references to the unborn child. Why?
The government decided that IVF should be open also to gay couples and to single persons. This offer to male gay couples and male singles could come true only if surrogacy is legalised. Screwtape’s ability to use doublespeak came in handy. The government threw in another universally accepted value word: altruistic. Who can be against altruism? So to camouflage the slippery slope it has embarked on the government is referring to altruistic surrogacy. Pull the other leg is the only sensible answer.
Perhaps the strongest criticism against these amendments was that levelled by George Vella. The former Labour deputy prime minister and deputy leader wrote in a tweet that the “New IVF bill [is] a complete travesty of ethics, morality and human dignity, allegedly to remove ‘discrimination’ imposed by nature herself.” He was short but extremely punchy. Vella also took a very strong position against the government’s decision not to include the unborn child in the definition of ‘family’.
Unfortunately, no one of the sitting Labour MPs, ministers and party officials had the courage to stand up to be counted. It seems that some are too afraid to take a public position in line with what some say in private. This is a shameful and cowardly attitude.
No one can accuse Dr Vella of anti-Labour feelings. Really and truly there are many Labour supporters who are against these amendments. They should stand up to be counted. This issue goes across party lines. This is why the Pro-Life rally that is being held at 4pm today in Valletta should be a truly national protest against these outrages of the government.
The bishops will be there. They had to be there.
Will you be there?
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt