Nisa Laburisti Welcomes Freezing Of Embryos With Serious Genetic Defects As Cures May Be Found One Day
PL women’s movement Nisa Laburisti has welcomed a government proposal to freeze embryos that have been found to contain a serious genetic disorder in the hope that someone will one day adopt them.
“The amendments proposed on Thursday are crucial amendments in order to better the IVF service in Malta, increase the chances of persons becoming parents and avoid unnecessary suffering. The government is keeping its promises,” Nisa Laburisti President Nikita Zammit Alamango told Lovin Malta when asked whether she agrees with this caveat in the proposed update to Malta’s IVF laws.
“As I understand it, embryos with genetic defects uncovered by PGTM will be cryopreserved until advances in medical science make the condition treatable. At that point they can be implanted – either to the original mother or, if this is not the case, then put up for adoption.”
This is the same argument that Health Minister Chris Fearne made yesterday when questioned by a MaltaToday journalist about the logic behind freezing, rather than discarding, defective embryos.
It will become an issue once Malta allows couples to screen their embryos for genetic testing for specific monogenic disorders prior to implantation, a process that Fearne confirmed yesterday forms part of the new IVF bill.
“We cannot exclude that science will find cures for these conditions in the coming years and months,” Fearne pointed out, a reference to serious monogenic conditions like gangliosidosis, Huntington’s Disease and Finnish Nephrotic Syndrome.
Maltese law states that any excess embryos following a successful IVF birth must be cryopreserved for potential future implantation. Their original prospective parents must confirm every five years whether they intend to keep them.
However, if they decide not to keep them or if they are still cryopreserved by the time the prospective mother turns 48, the maximum permissible age for IVF, the Embryo Protection Authority will step in and put them up for adoption.
This law has been in place since 2018 and the most recent data shows that 388 embryos are currently cryopreserved, although none have been put up for adoption.
So what does this mean?
By placing embryos with genetic disorders up for adoption, the government appears to have found a way to pass this law without fear that it will open the door to abortion, which is illegal in Malta in all circumstances.
After all, if it had allowed the discarding of these embryos, then questions would have certainly been raised as to why the government is banning women from accessing abortion under all circumstances when it is discarding certain embryos itself.
However, this still looks like a short-term solution to ease political discomfort. Even if science does find a cure for conditions like Huntington’s and gangliosidosis, embryos with those genes will still essentially have to compete against embryos without those genes for prospective parents.
It seems questionable whether many people will want to embryos in the first place, given that the main draw of IVF for most couples is that it allows them to have a child who shares the genetics of both (or at least one of the) parents.
It seems even more questionable that if a couple does decide to go down the embryo adoption route, they will choose an embryo they know will develop into a baby with gangliosidosis, curable or not.
As it stands, this seems like nothing more than a stopgap solution.
Cover photo: Left: Nisa Laburisti president Nikita Zammit Alamango (Photo: Nisa Laburisti), Right: Stock image
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