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Developments in IVF legislation in a Catholic Country

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Abstract

Some time ago an article was published in this journal relating the difficulties of legislating for InVitro Fertilization in a Catholic country and the issues and side issues which had to be faced. Since then one has approached closer to having a law which regulates this technology. However several issues continue to challenge the country. The main concern, other than IVF not being a natural method of having children is the status of the embryo. The normative values of the country in fact induces politicians to discuss an ‘embryology act’ rather than a ‘reproductive medicine’ act. At the eleventh hour Bishops continue to launch concerns which raises queries on how the debate moved forward over the past two decades. This paper tackles these issues and other more recent concerns and suggestions and takes a look at how such processes can be improved through a more rigorous understanding and logistic of dialogue, as certainly such debates should have implications for bioethics in general. Although the Church’s document Donum Vitae’s instructions for politicians where legislation for this technology has to occur has been vindicated, I seems that whilst many disputes have been resolved, the main conflict—that of the value of the conjugal act—has not.

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Notes

  1. If therefore one successfully fertilizes three embryos, say, and inserts them into the mother and subsequently she does not get pregnant, is one counting these amongst the 80 % loss. Clearly this loss should be statistically removed to have an overall picture of comparison to normal conjugative pregnancies.

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  1. Bioethics Research Programme, Medical School, Mater Dei Hospital, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

    Pierre Mallia

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  1. Pierre Mallia
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Correspondence to Pierre Mallia.

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Mallia, P. Developments in IVF legislation in a Catholic Country. Med Health Care and Philos 16, 385–390 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-012-9447-z

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