Robert Abela, the prime minister of Malta, one of the most pro-life nations in the world, said on Monday that he believes expanding already existing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) services is pro-life.
While participating in an event for the Labour party, Abela, who is up for reelection this month, said that while he believes the current law on IVF in Malta is “advanced,” he doesn’t think it goes far enough. He spoke of a message he received from someone who planned to schedule IVF services in a different country because they did not meet the age requirements for IVF in Malta.
“He told me he was going to book the treatment abroad,” said Abela, according to Newsbook, “I told him don’t book, if we’re re-elected, the law will be amended.” The publication also said Abela claimed a person cannot be pro-life by obstructing a process that gives life — such as IVF.
In 2018, Malta’s Embryo Protection (Amendment) Act widened access to IVF and legalized egg and sperm donation and embryo freezing. It also increased the ages of women allowed to undergo IVF from 24-43 to ages 18-48 and allowed single women and lesbians to partake, along with gay and single men. Surrogacy still remains illegal in the country.
Now Abela wants to expand the options for IVF even further. In addition to promising to amend the age restrictions on IVF, Abela also stated that IVF medications will be provided for free and that genetic testing will be made available to screen out human embryos with genetic conditions.
On March 2, speaking at a rally, he told the story of Jason Camilleri, who lost his infant daughter to the genetic condition gangliosidosis. Camilleri wants to use IVF to weed out any more of his children who might have the condition by creating embryos, testing them for gangliosidosis using preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), and either destroying them or donating them to science.
While destroying embryos remains illegal in Malta, legalizing PGD is a red flag that the destruction of embryos — likely those with disabilities — will be legalized as well.
READ: ‘So sad and confusing’: IVF’s physical and psychological impact on children
“[Labour Party President] Ramona Attard and I recently met up with couples who passed through these same experiences and we ended up crying with them,” said Abela. “I gave them my word that there will be changes to the IVF law in our manifesto. Can we deny people like Jason the chance and the right to become parents?”
Contrary to this sentiment, no adult has the right to a child. Children have the right to be born, not destroyed because they are not perfect. IVF has helped to create a world in which adults can create their desired children and destroy the ones who don’t meet their standards.
Children also have the right to know their biological parents rather than having “donor” listed as their parent. Children do not exist to fulfill adult desires and should not be created for that purpose.
A Harvard Medical School study revealed that 62% of children conceived through donor technologies believe it to be unethical and immoral. They feel like business transactions. One woman told the child advocacy group Them Before Us, “Somehow, somewhere, my parents developed the idea that they deserved to have a baby, and it didn’t matter how much it cost, how many times it took, or how many died in the process. They deserved a child. And with an attitude like that, by the time I was born they thought they deserved to have the perfect child… as Dad defined a perfect child. And since they deserved a child, I was their property to be controlled, not a person or a gift to be treasured.”
More human beings die during the IVF process than are born alive. In the United States, where the reproductive technologies industry is unregulated, an estimated one million valuable and worthy people have been born thanks to IVF, yet 1.7 million have died, and another one million are said to be currently frozen while their parents decide if they still want them.
Deregulating IVF is a dangerous idea, as has been proven in the United States. IVF is not pro-life because it treats children as commodities to be created and destroyed on the whims of adults.
In addition to his comments about IVF, Abela has vowed that abortion would remain illegal as long as he is prime minister.
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