Infertility treatment should be regulated

Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) and infertility treatment should be regulated by adequate legislation, according to the Maltese Paediatric Association.

During an extraordinary general meeting, the association also resolved that an independent state regulatory body should be set up - along the lines of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority of the United Kingdom.

It also said that no more than two embryos should be transferred in any IVF cycle; that the regulatory body must ensure that the treatment of infertility would not jeopardise the neonatal intensive care resources of the country; professional counselling should be mandatory to prospective parents seeking infertility treatment; and that detailed records should be kept; statistics published annually by the regulatory body; and that all professionals involved in ART shall liaise with the neonatal services of the country.

The association added that ART frequently led to the birth of significant numbers of twins, triplets, quadruplets and higher-order births born to different mothers at the same time, and that this inevitably resulted in a severe depletion of the neonatal intensive care resources of the country.

"Moreover, worldwide, multiple pregnancies arising from ART are associated with an increased risk of death and neurological disability in the offspring."

The Maltese Paediatric Association is a specialist association representing over 90 per cent of the paediatricians practising in the Maltese Islands.