Godfrey Farrugia suggests abrogative referendum to repeal embryo freezing

Democratic Party MP Godfrey Farrugia has proposed a referendum to repeal embryo freezing if it becomes law.

Speaking in Parliament tonight during the continuation of the Second Reading of the changes proposed by the government to the Embryo Protection Act, Farrugia hit back at the government side, accusing it of rendering the human embryo an object and paving the way for abortion.

The PD MP argued against embryo freezing, insisting no one had a right to decide which embryos get the chance to be born and which will remain frozen.

Throughout his speech, Farrugia spoke with a placard held behind him by his partner and fellow PD MP Marlene Farrugia, which had a speech bubble coming out of an embryo reading: ‘Why have my siblings been born and I have not?’.

The new law will make embryo freezing an integral part of the in-vitro fertilisation process, lifting the current ban.

Farrugia said that if embryo freezing was introduced, he would be prepared to support the holding of a referendum to abolish that part of the law.

He accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of making “a unilateral U-turn” on embryo freezing in the last legislature after having declared himself against in 2012.

This is about hope, life

Farrugia’s scaremongering on abortion was met by disdain from the government side with Reforms Parliamentary Secretary Julia Farrugia Portelli, insisting the changes were there to foster life.

Farrugia Portelli said the Opposition was ignoring the pain of people who suffered from infertility and who will be given fresh hope by the new law.

“I would like the satisfaction that I feel as a mother to be felt by many other women who find it difficult to conceive,” Farrugia Portelli said, drawing on her personal anguish before giving birth to a daughter five years ago.

She insisted the new law was about equality because it gave infertile couples the chance to have a more successful treatment in Malta. Responding to a jibe from PD MP Marlene Farrugia, the parliamentary secretary responded that not everyone was as rich as she was to seek treatment abroad.

At this juncture, Marlene Farrugia’s partner, Godfrey, flared up, accusing the parliamentary secretary of going personal. The Speaker repeatedly called on Farrugia to stop shouting until he ordered him to leave the Chamber.

After calm returned, Farrugia Portelli confessed that the legal changes were not fully responding to all the needs of infertile couples because the law would still ban pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

PGD is used to analyse embryos, especially in cases where family members are prone to hereditary diseases, so that defective ones are discarded before implantation.

“I know couples who could not conceive because of genetic problems, went abroad and used PGD and now have a child… I am a hypocrite because I know we will not be making available all the scientific tools to help these couples but I cannot reconcile this with the destruction of defective embryos,” Farrugia Portelli said.

Other MPs who spoke tonight were Equality Minister Helena Dalli and PN MPs Edwin Vassallo and Ivan Bartolo.

Read also: An idiot’s guide to how Maltese IVF law will change