After a raging months-long debate, the government said yesterday that it was proposing significant changes to the controversial IVF law amendments, namely that altruistic surrogacy will be presented at a later stage under a separate Bill and that the anonymity previously proposed for gamete (sperm and egg) donation will be partially lifted. The latter means that children conceived as a result of gamete donation will be allowed, when they reach a certain age, to find out who their biological parents are.
Health Minister Chris Fearne announced the changes that government will be making to the original proposals while speaking in Parliament yesterday, during a debate on the financial estimates of the Embryo Protection Authority.
The proposals, first announced earlier this year, will see the introduction of embryo freezing and also proposed the introduction of non-commercial surrogacy.
The proposals had caused quite a stir, with the Opposition coming out strongly against them. Many thousands had marched in Valletta in opposition.
President Marie-Louis Coleiro Preca had appealed for more time so that a constructive and holistic debate could be held. A number of former Labour officials had also come out against the proposals which, the government says, were part of its electoral manifesto. Speaking at the PL general conference at the end of April, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had assured that, following the second reading of the bill, there would be a long discussion in the committee stage which would involve “significant consultation” on the subject.
Fearne yesterday said that part of the anonymity with regards to gamete donation would be removed, explaining certain amendments government intends to put forward during the Committee discussion stage of the Embryo Protection Act.
Fearne explained that the original proposal would have seen the whole gamete donation sequence be completely anonymous, meaning that the donor would not know where his donation went, the receivers would not know who the donor was and the child would not know who the donor was either.
The Minister said, however, that widespread consultation occurred, and he is proposing a change, whereby a child born from gamete donation can, at age 18, know who the donor was, and the details would be kept in a register. The other two aspects mentioned would remain anonymous.
Turning to embryo freezing, which he said already occurs today, he mentioned that after consultation government will also change a few things from the original proposals.
He said that couples who end up having a third embryo fertilised in the first round for example, which would need to be frozen, will be given the opportunity to have that embryo implanted later even if they give birth to a child through the other embryos. In addition, in cases where a couple has an embryo frozen, the age one is allowed to undertake IVF will be raised to 48.
He said that in the exceptional circumstances where embryos would be adopted, the prospective parents would have to be assessed to determine that they are suitable parents, just like in other adoption cases.
He also said that in cases where other terms are used for the term ‘embryo’, they will all be turned to ‘embryo’.
As for altruistic surrogacy, Fearne said it will be removed from this bill, and will present it as a separate bill in Parliament later.
PN MP Claudio Grech said the PN would need to read the amendments, but said that it is positive that the tone and presentation of what was heard, was different from what was originally proposed.
He said that he expected Fearne, who said government respects life from beginning to end, to disassociate himself from a government official who said that the embryo does not have the same right to life.
The amendments announced yesterday are a confirmation of what we had said in the beginning, that this law was the fruit of a decision to rush. He said that the changes, as spoken today, show just how right members of the opposition were to vote against the bill in the second reading stage.