Partit Demokratiku has underlined its opposition to plans to amend IVF laws, saying that the proposed changes would amount to "genocide."

In a statement issued on Tuesday morning, PD highlighted its concerns with proposed amendments, which would allow doctors to freeze unborn embryos and put unused ones up for adoption, and branded the Commissioner for Children's statement in favour of the legal changes "obscene". 

The party said that Maltese law made it clear that an unborn child was a person, and that children's right came before the interests of all, including parents. 

"Embryo freezing is directly, a suspension of such rights. Termination of frozen embryos is not only a withdrawal of such rights but also the negation of the natural right to life. PD is against both practices," the party said. 

It dismissed adoption provisions for previously frozen embryos as "an expedient and maladjusted compromise" and argued that the legal changes, if implemented, would violate principles of equality since doctors would have to choose which embryo to implant and which to freeze during IVF cycles. 

READ: Embryo freezing is a must for silently suffering couples , says lab director

The party expressed dismay at Commissioner for Children Pauline Miceli's support of the proposals, calling her backing "more than surreal, obscene". 

PD urged the Prime Minister not to proceed with the amendments, saying they would "give rise to the indiscriminate disposal of life which commands who lives, who may live later and who may not live at all."

"Let’s not be guilty of genocide," the statement concluded.