President George Vella non-committal over embryo testing

President George Vella has remained non-committal as to whether he will sign into law a Bill introducing genetic testing of embryos produced by in-vitro fertilisation.

“We will cross the bridges when we come to them,” a spokesperson told MaltaToday when asked whether the President had any moral objections to pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and whether he will refuse to sign the law.

Any act of parliament requires the President’s signature to become law and refusal to do so could create a constitutional crisis.

Health Minister Chris Fearne has said government intends proposing changes to the Embryo Protection Act to allow genetic testing of embryos to minimise the risk of hereditary diseases or conditions being transmitted from parents to their prospective children. Fearne did not give details and no draft text exists yet.

READ ALSO: Fearne throws down gauntlet to Bernard Grech with bill for IVF genetic testing

But sources have suggested that Vella is uncomfortable with PGD and its ethical implications.

Before his appointment as head of state, Vella had expressed serious reservations on the IVF law changes pushed by government in 2018.

He had branded the IVF Bill “a complete travesty of ethics, morality, and human dignity, allegedly to remove ‘discrimination’ imposed by nature herself”.

The Bill made embryo freezing legal, allowed egg and sperm donation, and made treatment accessible to single women and lesbians.

Vella had also questioned why government was going down a “slippery slope” to deliver “the utopic promise of equality”.

The 2018 amendments removed several restrictions to IVF but doctors in the field believe they did not go far enough.

Although the law allows doctors to fertilise up to a maximum of five eggs and embryos to be frozen, women have to use up all frozen embryos, even if these are deemed to be of inferior quality, before undergoing a fresh IVF cycle. The law also does not allow embryos to be discarded or be used for scientific research.

With these constraints, PGD cannot be carried out. The genetic tests are normally carried out on embryos when there is a family history of genetic diseases, in order to select the healthy fertilised eggs for transfer into the woman’s womb. Embryos that carry the genetic disorder are normally discarded or given up for scientific research.