Pro-life organisations today said they would seek a referendum if the Embryo Protection Act was weakened to allow embryo freezing.
Speaking at the launch of a petition calling for embryos to be protected in the Constitution, Miriam Sciberras, chairwoman of the Malta Life Network, said such changes posed a "threat to life".
The introduction of embryo freezing, surrogacy and spermicide and egg donation, would open the door to abortion, she insisted.
Surrogacy, Dr Sciberras said, created children to be intentionally separated from their birth mother. "Are we saying that mothers and fathers don't matter?" she said.
Dr Sciberras said the petition would be passed on to the Speaker of the House to appeal for life to be protected and not "open the can of worms" these measures would bring.
Present for the press conference was former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who said that there seemed to be a move towards the destruction of life through embryo freezing.
"I am extremely concerned as this where we seem to be heading." Destroying frozen embryos, he said, was equivalent to abortion.