Doctors for Life (DFL) on Friday warned against the introduction of embryonic pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) saying this would be disheartening to afflicted patients and their families.
PGD involves the identification of embryos that have a particular illness, and generally results in destroying or discarding them so that only unaffected embryos are implanted in the process of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Human rights lawyer Tonio Azzopardi, in his personal capacity, has filed a civil lawsuit against amendments to the Embryo Protection Act, arguing that legislation allowing embryo freezing, places the life of the unborn child in clear and manifest danger.
Testifying in that case, chairman and founder of the Saint James Hospital Group Josie Muscat said that, in his view, the way forward ought to be the introduction of PGD, which is not envisaged under Maltese law.
In a statement, the doctors said they endorsed “the scientific truth” that a human life starts at fertilisation and that once this has begun, it should always be treated with dignity and care, irrespective of the stage of development.
Embryos, it said, are human lives at a very early stage of development.
Certain genetic conditions, such as cystic fibrosis, had an abysmal prognosis up until a few years ago but have now become far more treatable with life expectancy approaching 50 years, they said. They added that the life satisfaction of people with Down Syndrome is higher than average according to evidence.
The deliberate elimination of certain humans sent the message that their life is not worth living and that the presence of illness devalues them, DFL said.
It said that while it agreed wholeheartedly agrees with any ethical measures meant to decrease transmission of genetic illness to children, embryonic PGD “will lead to a eugenic process that only eliminates illness by eliminating the ill”.
“It implies a hierarchy of value, selecting the healthy who are given a chance at life and discarding the sick, condemning them to be destroyed.”
The doctors invited MPs to reflect on these ethical implications and ask themselves if they wanted to be personally responsible for the destruction of human embryos that will follow the introduction of embryonic PGD.