Former Labour Minister George Vella has branded the IVF Bill “a complete travesty of ethics, morality, and human dignity, allegedly to remove ‘discrimination’ imposed by nature herself”.
Furthermore, he questioned the reasons why the government was going down a “slippery slope” to deliver “the utopic promise of equality”. The former foreign minister, who until June last year was a key figure in Joseph Muscat’s Cabinet, let rip against the government’s plan to introduce embryo freezing and adoption on Twitter.
The Bill also seeks to widen access to treatment for same-sex couples and persons who are single by choice and to launch a public consultation on surrogacy.
Dr Vella’s harsh criticism was levelled within hours of the unveiling of the Bill by Health Minister Chris Fearne, who emphasised that Labour’s parliamentary group had unanimously backed the changes.
Dr Vella’s outburst followed an opinion piece published last month in the Times of Malta in which he had sounded the alarm bells against the introduction of abortion in Malta.
On that occasion the former minister, who is also a retired specialist in family medicine, had voiced concern on the government’s intention to remove safeguards against the unborn from the domestic violence Bill.
The government is discriminating against children
Meanwhile, the government’s plans have also come under fire from Opposition MP Edwin Vassallo, who raised concerns that children born through embryo adoption would be “orphans from conception”.
He added that those who have the right to life at heart may be required to take to the streets to convey the message that this Bill is an attempt to promote the “culture of death”.
The outspoken MP is no stranger to controversy having already defied the party line by voting against same-sex marriages last summer. Mr Vassallo also stood out for being the only legislator who last January voted against a domestic violence Bill that he said opened the door to abortion by removing safeguards against the unborn.
In his reaction, Mr Vassallo argued that it was quite ironic for the government to justify these changes on the grounds that it wanted to do away with discriminatory practices against same-sex couples.
“In its frenzy to appease the gay lobby the government is discriminating against children,” he said.
“Government is ignoring the right of adopted children to know the identity of their biological parents,” Mr Vassallo added.
The Nationalist Party will be holding an internal debate on the Bill in the coming days, in time for the plenary debate in Parliament scheduled for next week.
PN sources said that apart from Mr Vassallo, there were other PN MPs who had strong reservations on various fronts.
Asked about his voting intentions, Mr Vassallo said he would be making his position clear during the parliamentary debate after outlining his stance in the party’s internal structures.
“I feel I have the responsibility to speak out on this very serious matter. Nobody has the right to tamper with life,” the Nationalist MP remarked.
In other developments a pro-life movement expressed deep concerns on the proposed changes to the Embryo Protection Act. The Life Network Foundation said that the amendments posed ethical and legal problems to prospective parents, while ignoring children’s rights.