IVF law drafter slams new Bill as ‘chilling’

A medical professor who had been involved in the drafting of the existing IVF legislation has branded proposed changes to it as “chilling” and “irresponsible”. University of Malta lecturer Prof. Pierre Schembri Wismayer gave this scathing review when asked for his reaction to the government’s plans from a medical perspective. In 2012 he had been involved in the consultation held in the run-up to the drafting of the Embryo Protection Act which regulates IVF. He summed up his assessment of the proposed changes as tantamount to a document prepared over the weekend by somebody high on energy drinks. “If such proposals were put forward in an exam paper, the candidate would have surely failed,” he said. Among the proposed changes, embryo freezing and adoption are arguably the most controversial. Prof. Schembri Wismayer noted that obliging couples who are interested in IVF treatment to give their consent to embryo adoption was probably a first.  “It is as if they are being blackmailed to give away their own embryos for adoption in case these are not required.” Adoption, he said, might sound like a good compromise to avoid embryo destruction but in reality such a course of action would...