Clearly Francesca Vella’s article ‘Possibility of ethical IVF does exist’ published on 3 April shows she is oblivious to contributions I made and developments that occurred in the Social Affairs Parliamentary Committee through April-June last year.

The agenda has since been restricted to one issue – following the developments in the June 2010 ESHRE (European Society of Human Reproduction & Embryology) Annual Meeting in Rome, does ova vitrification rule out the necessity of embryo freezing altogether save the obvious to avoid prejudice to the woman’s health?

Put differently, does egg vitrification exclude the possibility of creating more than the exact amount of embryos targeted for implantation?

Prof. Mark Brincat, the head of Department at Mater Dei and the University of Malta, was unequivocal in the 11 May, 2011 Social Affairs Committee: “If we fertilise four eggs to get two embryos but end up with three fertilised eggs instead, what shall we do with the third one? Shall we discard it or forcefully implant it in the woman? Embryo freezing is a fall-back option in this case”.

This middle-of-the-road approach was also advocated by then Commissioner for Children, Ms Carmen Zammit, backed by the National Council, whereby my Select Committee was advised that “embryo freezing was to be allowed only in urgent circumstances or when more embryos would have been created as an unintended side effect as not more than two embryos should be concomitantly transferred.”

That no more than two embryos should be transferred has been the unanimous decision of all paediatricians here since 2005.

The implantation rate, moreover the pregnancy rate following the transfer of a single unselected cleavage state embryo ( as diametrically opposed to single embryo transfer) in an infertile couple are so low that no ART specialists carry it out.

■ Jean-Pierre Farrugia MD, MP