MaltaToday online poll | 50% agree with embryo freezing ban

Half of the respondents to a MaltaToday online poll believe that the House of Representatives should go ahead and approve the current Embryo Protection Bill that bans embryo freezing in assisted reproductive technology.

The draft IVF bill, as it is more commonly known, introduces the novel science of egg freezing - oocyte vitrification - as opposed to embryo freezing.

Unlike embryo freezing, vitrification skirts the ethical dilemmas of leaving 'unclaimed' human embryos in freezers. No more than two ova can be fertilised during each fertilisation cycle, and access to IVF will be regulated by an embryology authority to decide who is entitled to the free treatment.

As the House of Representatives started debating the bill, both sides agreed over the fact that "life starts at conception or fertilisation" and therefore the embryo should be "protected".

MaltaToday's online poll asked its readers whether the MPs should ban embryo freezing.

628 out of the 1,263 respondents agreed that the freezing of embryos should be banned.

29% (362) responded that the bill should be approved as it is, but to amend it during the next legislature. On the other hand 22% (273) said that the PL should oppose the bill and propose embryo freezing.

The Labour Party has already pronounced its full stand on the regulation of in vitro fertilisation, saying it will not support embryo freezing except in cases of force majeure.

On the other hand, Alternattiva Demokratika criticised shortcomings of the egg freezing science being promoted in the law.

The proposed law comes after years of debate in parliamentary committees on whether to regulate Malta's 22-year-old IVF industry, practised by private hospitals, and whether to include it in the national health service.

Controversially it outlaws embryo freezing and proposed the novel science of freezing the female gametes - ova - which are then fertilised in pairs: after harvesting, two eggs are fertilised with sperm, while the rest of the eggs are frozen for later use.

Labour said it will vote in favour of the Embryo Protection Bill but wants to seek changes on the role of the five-man experts' committee that will regulate the recipients of free IVF.