Updated | PN wants IVF only for couples with an infertility problem

Updated at 5.10pm with rest of debate

A child born through gamete donation will have the right to know who the biological parent is upon reaching 18, MPs have agreed.

The amendment was put forward this afternoon as MPs debated the changes proposed by the government to the law regulating in-vitro fertilisation.

The debate on the amendments to the Embryo Protection Act is continuing in Parliament’s Consideration of Bills committee, where MPs go through the individual clauses.

Health Minister Chris Fearne is piloting the changes to the IVF law

In its original proposal, the government wanted gamete, embryo donation and adoption to remain anonymous at all stages. However, it retracted on the matter and Health Minister Chris Fearne, earlier this week, proposed fresh changes that give the child the right to know who the biological parents are upon reaching 18.

The amendment was accepted by the Opposition, even if it raised concerns that the child’s legal parents had no obligation to inform their offspring they were conceived through gamete donation.

Labour MP Robert Abela, who sat on the committee for some time said it made no sense to impose an obligation on parents to tell their children how they were conceived.

The Opposition MPs also objected to the process with which embryos up for adoption will be matched with their prospective parents, insisting this was akin to profiling that could lead to discrimination.

The government MPs rebutted that matching was a normal process in all adoption processes and the details of how this should be done and what criteria are adopted be left to the Embryo Protection Authority, according to international protocols.

While all MPs agreed with the right to life, the ideological split on some of the ethically contentious issues was very evident as PN MPs pushed their conservative line and the PL MPs stuck to their progressive views.

PN MP Claudio Grech is fronting the amendments proposed by the Opposition

Earlier

At the start of the debate, Nationalist Party MP Claudio Grech said the Opposition wanted to limit IVF to couples who suffer from medical infertility.

This effectively excludes same-sex couples from the procedure, even if the party wanted the definition of prospective parents to include all couples, irrespective of sexual orientation.

Grech, who is his party’s spokesperson for the rights of the unborn child, is leading the PN’s scrutiny of the IVF law.

The PN proposal also sought to block single people from getting access to IVF, something the government amendments will allow.

Grech insisted children should be born into families with two parents, for their own good.

The PN proposal was voted down, with government MPs sticking to the definition outlined in the proposed amendments to the Embryo Protection Act.

The government amendments will open IVF to all couples and single people, irrespective of sexual orientation. The amendments will also legalise gamete donation, which removes the natural stumbling block for same-sex couples and single women, who may not be medically infertile.

Chaired by Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, the committee has also opened up to different stakeholders, who are making their views heard before the MPs discuss the respective clauses.

The proposed changes to the law will also make embryo freezing an integral part of the IVF process, something the PN is opposed to.

At the Second Reading stage, all government MPs voted in favour of the Bill, while all Opposition MPs voted against.

However, on Monday Health Minister Chris Fearne presented changes to the government’s original Bill. The government retracted on surrogacy, which will now be presented in a separate Bill and discussed on its own and said gamete donation will not be anonymous.

The government MPs on the committee, apart from Fearne and Zrinzo Azzopardi are Rosianne Cutajar and Edward Zammit Lewis. The Opposition members apart from Grech are Robert Cutajar and Stephen Spiteri.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat attended for a brief moment the committee meeting, a sign of the importance the government is giving this Bill.

The committee will continue debating the clauses of the Bill on Friday.