Cana Movement report says IVF ‘is not a solution’

The Cana Movement has presented a critical analysis of the legal and cultural implication of the IVF bill.

The report compiled by lawyer Robert Tufigno, was not intended "to enter into the ethical and moral issues of the Bill," as those aspects were dealt with in the pastoral letter of the Bishops of Malta and Gozo entitled Celebrating Human Life published on the 26 July, 2012.

The position paper says that with social changes contributing to postponing pregnancies to older parental ages, the demand for IVF will likely continue to rise, but the fertility rate need not increase concurrently.

"In such circumstances policy makers should consider family policies that encourage and help young couples start a family earlier in life and thus contribute to a demographic balance and intergenerational solidarity," the report says.

It is also pointed out that the IVF bill does not indicate any policy in this direction.

"IVF is not a solution. Rather it is counter-productive as it provides a ray of hope to those who postponed conception to a later age, thus making the postponement of a first pregnancy to older age a favoured option," the paper adds.

The report also notes that by not restricting IVF to cases of sterility or impotence in married couples and widening the procedure of IVF to all heterosexual couples in all circumstances "the idea that is being given by the bill is that the wanted child is a commodity that may be procured, albeit at a high cost - emotional, financial and relational - from a clinic."

"The most natural and noble desire of a married couple, that to have a child, is being reduced to a need for something which may be satisfied through a technological process. This approach implies that the "embryo" is a product of technology using human sources, and as any product may be disposed of at any time."

The Cana Movement paper describes this as "a product, as any other object, may be disposed of and utilised as one wishes. The Bill, without going as far as considering the "embryo" as a human being, then aims at prohibiting the abuse of "embryos" through regulating of how many "embryos" may be produced, their destiny and what may be done with them."

It is however intended to be a comprehensive analysis but was an attempt to shed light on the Bill's implications.

The movement's report, which was presented this morning deals with the legal and cultural implications of the bill but does not enter into the technical implications of the bill, such as biological and medical matters.

The report says that although the declared scope of the bill is to "regulate the procedure relating to medically assisted procreation and to protect human embryos, " the term "medically assisted procreation" (MAP) is not defined in the bill.

All aspects of the bill are analysed from a legal aspect, including the legal repercussions if the law is breached.

In recent months, the Cana Movement warned that the legalisation of IVF by other countries had paved the way for abortion.

The movement organises mandatory pre-marriage preparation courses for couples getting married within the Catholic Church and also offers counselling services to couples.

A bill to regulate IVF launched by justice and health ministers Chris Said and Joe Cassar has marked a policy shift towards the science of egg freezing and a ban on embryo freezing, except in exceptional medical cases.

In regulating a service that has so far been practised freely for the past 23 years by private hospitals, the new law will for the first time offer IVF to both married and unmarried couples on the national health system, as well as set up an authority that will regulate medical protocols and best practice on IVF.