Did the Commissioner for Children Sonia Camilleri, think before she stated, as reported on the front page in The Times on Friday, that she is against the best help we have for infertile couples, known as IVF?

Did she think about how incongruous a statement that is from someone who is the Commissioner for Children no less? Does she know how common fertility problems are? Does she know how many thousands of families in Malta have had some form of this treatment here and abroad? Does she know of the joy these children have brought their families?

If she did she would not have made that “you can’t always get what you want in your life” kind of response. She apparently said, and I quote The Times, that she wished she were tall and slim, but she wasn’t and she had accepted the fact. Is being a bit chubby now on a par with not being able to have children without some help from medicine?

I’m not the least bit bothered if the Commissioner for Children is, in her own words, short and chubby. So are most of us after a certain age. But I do mind that someone who is meant to safeguard children’s rights should somehow choose to prevent the birth of children. Why doesn’t she meet with all the children in Malta, who were born with the help of some form of fertility treatment, be it IVF, ICSI, and tell them, and their mummies and daddies that it was wrong of them to come into this world.

I have to admire the timing of this Commissioner too. At a time when Tonio Borg wants to put an anti-abortion clause in the Constitution because, in his words and the words of the pro life group, life starts at conception and is precious, the Children’s Commissioner has come along to tell civilised Maltese society that unless the fertilisation actually occurs inside the woman’s body, it’s not sacred!

Where would we all be without the advances in medical research? With a life expectancy of 50 not 70? With people not having a bypass, transplants? What do these extreme fundamentalists, who are taking up so much press time, make of the morality of transplants and organ donors and blood transfusions I wonder?

Of course Mrs Camilleri is once again using the arguments about embryos (should they be frozen, kept, experimented on) to boost her claim that IVF has done a little good but created a hell of a lot more bad.

This is so wrong and so misleading that it bears further scrutiny. And this is one of the many fundamental reasons why I am opposed to this well-meaning idea of Tonio Borg. Because it’s very obvious that while his intention may have been good and noble, other fanatics will take this idea to the extreme and fly with it, and drag us all down with them in the process. A truly amazing contribution from Dr Michael Asciak on the subject of when life starts also made my head reel. It seems his agenda is to control IVF rather than stop abortion, which he can’t do abroad and is illegal here anyway

After all, abortion is illegal in Malta. Sadly, it still happens sometimes unsafely, and in other cases women go abroad. Eighty-eight per cent are against legalising it and it will stay that way for a very long time. But somehow we have let the fanatics bring IVF into the abortion debate. People hear the word embryos and imagine small babies. Actually it’s a cluster of cells, which you can’t even see with the naked eye. It’s life, definitely, but not a small baby

Dr Asciak went further. He again used this issue to attack AD, saying that if they didn’t want to sign it meant they were pro abortion. This is disgraceful. I am no fan of AD. I don’t want to give them disproportionate importance because they are not even in Parliament, but to say that because the European Greens are in favour of abortion they are too, is wicked

Let’s say it once and never say it again. All the major political parties of Europe are pro abortion. Individuals, usually Catholic, disagree as is their right. But both the party the Nationalists form part of, and the party the Labour Party forms part of in the EU Parliament are pro abortion as are the European Greens. So let’s please keep this subject off the political agenda because we will only dirty ourselves if we do!

So this staunchly Catholic country is against abortion and it’s reflected in our laws. Let’s leave it at that. More worrying though is that in our quest to protect life, we do not prevent our doctors from taking advantage of the best technology available to help couples have babies. That’s what IVF is. It helps couples have babies. Beautiful babies. No infertile couples are going to write in and tell the Children’s Commissioner to get her facts right because no one is going to publicly identify himself or

herself.

Everyone is entitled to have his/her own opinions. But when you talk as the Commissioner for Children, your opinions need to be well researched, your opinions need to be humane and

pcompassionate and most of all, your opinions should be open and loving as are children’s minds.

I trust this government will not let the extremists have their way and will continue to encourage what is one of the best success rates in Europe in the field of IVF. The team at St Luke’s and elsewhere have given untold joy, hope and love to thousands. If Sonia Camilleri, the children’s commissioner has her way it will only be available to the rich abroad.

No wonder educated Nationalists are so disillusioned. When we joined the EU we thought Europe was coming to Malta, instead we are trying to take Malta to Europe. It seems we are going back, becoming more rigid and fundamentalist and trying to take Malta to Europe. Can we please open our eyes and our hearts and our minds to the priorities in life. Health is everything. Infertility is a serous health

problem and thank God

that today there is help for this

condition...