Malta’s bill isn’t proposing the discarding of deformed embryos but rather their cryopreservation, in the hope that someone will adopt them once an effective treatment for their condition is found.

However, noting that not a single frozen embryo has been adopted by a third party since embryo freezing was legalised in 2018, the signatories argued it is “highly unrealistic to expect that an human embryo known to have a significant genetic defect and already discarded by its own parents would be considered for adoption by unrelated couples”.

Indeed, they warned that the government only introduced this caveat to stymie ethical concerns about the bill.

Vassallo questioned why the PN chose to support the bill when it had received a copy of this same position paper.

“This information shows the government’s amendments, which the Opposition agreed upon, could cause the death of a living embryo. We cannot be indifferent to the killing of life before birth and it cannot be that those who practically helped write this truth have ended up denying what was written. Life is sacred, both after birth and before it.”

PN leader Bernard Grech had initially came out against the bill but ended up U-turning following pressure from his parliamentary group.

Grech said yesterday that while the PN still disagrees with the genetic testing of embryos, it will vote in favour of the bill anyway because it has now been amended to include a reference to polar body testing on unfertilised oocytes as an alternative.

However, Grech has faced renewed pressure to vote against the bill or grant his MPs a free vote, with PN MPs Adrian Delia, Alex Borg and Ivan Bartolo all criticising the concept of genetic testing.

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