SURELY, ONLY IN MALTA – IVF Amendments, how to bury the positive and just dwell on the negative

The proposed Amendments to the IVF legislation are extremely difficult and complex to understand and are generally BEYOND the comprehension of the layperson – including myself in the forefront. This means I can only read and comprehend at face value without going into any depth.

Obviously, this is a subject that is bound to create controversy, but this is a Labour Government, a government that has refrained from bypassing controversies and doing nothing at all – unlike previous PN administrations which did nothing about anything except to ensure its own cushioned existence.

Well remembered is former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s observation that poverty in Malta was just “a perception” (which meant he had absolutely no intentions of doing anything about it).

Former PN Health Minister Joe Cassar was under severe pressure for maladministration resulting in an over-crowded Emergency Section and patients stacked in corridors etc and once said when he visited Mater Dei Emergency all he saw were people eating sandwiches and biscuits – which meant they were not really there for any medical emergency!

Now it seems to me the proposed Amendments are clearly aimed at making the availability of IVF treatment more widely available to persons wishing to have children but for some reason or other suffer infertility which can only be helped by IVF. In short, I take this to mean increasing the possibility of bearing, raising and adopting children.

Again, as a layman, I do not agree entirely with all that I have read, including the availability of such treatment to single men and women NOT in a stable relationship.

HOWEVER, and this is a big HOWEVER, although legislation for embryo freezing was passed in 2012 under a PN Government, this currently important matter has been overtaken by much hype and hysteria and is being projected by the PN and their cronies as in fact being a measure to KILL the concept of children…and hence of course, abortion

Some priests have been raving from pulpits and demonstrations organised, shoving young children to the forefront (poor things) to make matters more emotional.

This is not withstanding that time and again this Government has pledged that abortion will NEVER be legislated.

The end result is that hype, hysteria and once more political propaganda has taken over from logic and common sense as well as rational debate and national cooperation to finalise legislation that is appropriate and attainable for couples unable to bear children for various medical reasons.

Hence last Sunday a walk “in favour of life” in Valletta attended by “a massive crowd” (The Independent), “many thousands” (The Times), “hundreds” (Malta Today) – the real truth, some hundreds (including a considerable number of young children).

Yes, ONLY in Malta, where a matter of national importance has been reduced to a slanging match about dreaming about dead babies during the night, lots of emotional fist shaking and chest thumping and where Opposition Leader Adrian Delia makes speeches about his “destiny” to save the babies of this world.

It is all so sickening.

ALBERT JEROME FENECH