MP who proposed embryo freezing welcomes IVF law

Nationalist MP Jean-Pierre Farrugia has welcomed the draft law that will regulate the industry of in vitro fertilisation, insisting that all recommendations put forward by the his parliamentary committee had been taken onboard.

Farrugia had chaired the six-month parliamentary committee on IVF in 2010. He said that he has already been in contact with Labour MP Michael Farrugia - who also sat on the committee - and with health minister Joe Cassar and justice minister Chris Said, in conveying his views on the bill.

Independent MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said that while he agreed with the general principle of the law, he "might be moving some amendments when it is discussed in Parliament".

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi will need Pullicino Orlando's approval to ensure a majority passed the law.

On his part, Farrugia - whose committee had proposed the freezing of embryos, something not included in the bill - government had produced "the bill the committee wanted."

"The bill is what we asked for and has cross-party approval," he said, adding that there was no need for "political divergences".

"The law basically includes whatever our committee has submitted and all of our proposals have been included, except for embryo freezing," Farrugia said.

He explained that the issue had been superseded by scientific developments in oocyte vitrification, a process that involves the freezing of a woman's ova.

The law will mean that women who are hyper-stimulated to produce an excess of eggs will have a maximum of two fertilised for implantation, while the rest of the eggs will be frozen for future use, if necessary.

An advantage of egg freezing means less hyper-stimulation cycles for women, which can come at considerable financial cost for couples.

"Last year, the social affairs committee had to deal with developments in this area. Developments in oocyte vitrification came about in the later part of 2010 and first reports began to surface after the committee had concluded its report," Farrugia said.

The social affairs committee had produced its own report on IVF after Farrugia's select committee presented its own report to the Cabinet.

Farrugia also said that the fertilisation rates of frozen eggs were as good as freshly harvested eggs, and that this method made it much easier to avoid freezing all embryos produced in a cycle of stimulation.

Egg freezing, or oocyte vitrification, does not require all ova to be fertilised with human sperm. The eggs can be frozen and fertilised later.

"One of the important proposals that we pushed for, and has been applied, was that no more than two fertilised eggs would be transferred to the mother," Farrugia said.

Other committee recommendations had included mandatory counselling, the prohibition of sperm and egg donation, and that only heterosexual couples in a stable relationship would be eligible for IVF treatment.

Farrugia also said the new law unveiled on Friday included a 'force majeure' principle where the Authority for the Protection of the Embryo will allow the freezing of an embryo in exceptional cases.

"Gynecologists had argued that to create two embryos, more than two eggs would have to be fertilised," referring to cases where not all fertilised eggs reach the stage of blastocysts - fully-developed embryos that reach this stage after three to five days.

"So if an extra embryo is created inadvertently, the authority would allow the freezing of the extra embryo. But this is going to be the exception," Farrugia explained.

He also said that in certain cases, where the mother would be younger and is in healthy condition, the option of a triple pregnancy - involving the implantation of multiple embryos - could be taken onboard, always at the discretion of the monitoring board.