Abstract
Malta traditionally enjoys a Roman Catholic Society, with the official religion of the country being cited in the second article of the constitution. Recently the government proposed to legislate to regulate human reproductive technology, in particular In Vitro Fertilization, which has been practiced for over two decades without controlling legislation. A Parliamentary Committee for social affairs was set up to study the situation inviting most stakeholders. The arguments gravitated mostly on issues of the status of the embryo and the media played a considerable role. At the end of the discussion the Archbishop made a statement which pointed out that IVF involves destruction of embryos and the process stopped. This article examines what caused the deterioration of the process and points favourably towards a way forward within the context of a Catholic Country.
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Notes
Mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as Melita, Malta is the Island St. Paul landed on following his shipwreck on the way to Rome for his trial. During his stay he made the son of the Roman consul of the island the first Bishop. Since the times of the Romans Malta has been invaded and occupied by various powers and empires. Perhaps most notably was the 500 years occupation by the Arabs, when the latter also occupied Sicily. Hence the Semitic sound and basic grammar of the language, which, however, is written in Latin letters and indeed rich in Latin vocabulary. During this period it is thought in fact that most of the population were Muslim. Nevertheless, the tradition survived and during the feudal times and later, upon giving the Island to the Order of St. John, following the latter’s defeat by the Ottoman Empire at Rhodes, the Catholic tradition was restored. This period culminated in the Great Siege between Muslim Turks and the Knights, in which king Solomein sent a great army to conquer the strategic island. Following the victory of the knights, Solomein vowed to return to capture the Island in less than a year. He never returned however and the strategic importance of the island to protect the European continent from Mediterranean invasion by the Ottoman empire was realised. The capital city of Valletta with its wondrous bastions was funded mostly by European kings and princes. The Order remained in Malta until they surrendered to Napoleon in 1785, and 15 years later the Maltese asked the British to become a colony. Although the British had a protestant religion, there was no effective interference with the traditions and dedications of the people, although awareness of the ‘dangers’ of Protestantism led in point of fact to a political referendum in the fifties to be won on religious grounds.
This was discussed by me and the President of the CANA movement—the Church organisation which imparts obligatory premarital courses. The President, a priest himself, agreed that reproductive technologies, including In Vitro Fertilization, can be used within marriage when all else has been tried and when appropriate counselling is given. Clearly there is a dichotomy of ideas between what is the ‘Pastoral’ approach, and the central official documents.
This document was commissioned a few years earlier by the Minster of Health in preparation to legislate on the issue. Discussions until the final document was produced took almost five years. This was also due to two national elections in the intervening period.
Author was Hon. Secretary to the committee at this time so that most of what is declared is first hand experience.
From a Catholic perspective this is not surprising as that indeed is what Donum Vitae expresses. This is also the position, for example, of the Catholic Health Association of Canada in their publication Health Care Ethics Guide, Catholic Health Association of Canada, February 1991, p. 38, article 47: “In Vitro Fertilization is not permitted because it radically removes procreation from the personal, sexual act of love of the couple and because it can lead to the deliberate destruction of embryos.”.
Note that the Minutes do not specify what WOW stands for; presumable the Dutch ship ‘Women on Waves’.
This was pointed out in the local media by gynaecologists.
Note that this ontological argument would hold even for cloned cells, as one would have to look at this cell in its newly form nature. A chair made of wood is no longer the plank, or the dead or live tree. The material has perhaps remained the same (as the DNA from a muscle cell being transformed into a cloned cell remains the same), but the nature has changed. We call a wooden chair, a chair, and not wood, or something that was a tree.
Women on Waves is an organisation which travels to countries aboard a Dutch-registered ship, offering abortion in those countries where it is not legal and where the abortion itself causes risk to the lives of the women themselves. The cause is both rights for abortion and rights to have an abortion in a clean environment. It also offers advice on medical abortion over the internet.
A considerable debate arose at the time on whether to entrench an anti-abortion amendment in the Constitution of Malta. This was a proposal made by the Vice Prime Minister, Dr. Tonio Borg, following a request by a group Gift of Life. Although in principle most parties were against abortion, the motive of this proposal at this particular time was questioned publicly in several quarters, from local newspaper media to many poplar programmes.
I went on record stating that although I was not against such an amendment in principle, it had to be without prejudice to any existing future laws regulating IVF, as otherwise it could be challenged as unconstitutional. No legal entity went further to explain this and to state whether in fact this would be the case. Eventually the plight for this amendment went down; it seemed indeed a way to indirectly sabotage any attempt at regulating IVF, once the issue of any miscarriages could have been put into an abortificient light.
When the Cold War was over, the dockyards, traditionally dependent on war ships, created a political issue by not accepting contracts from the US government to repair war ships. The General Workers Union, representing the dockyard workers, is traditionally a socialist union, and it is debatable whether this issue was political or not. Certainly the constitution was invoked. After all, one can still be neutral and accept contracts from all parties. The Cold War had been over quite some time. Yet this decision led to the economic decline of the dockyard, and indeed affected the economy of the government, which had to subsidize millions to keep it going until EU membership dictated that this should stop.
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During the interim period between when this article was presented to the editors and the time of publication, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Catholic Church has produced another document, entitled, ‘Dignitas Personae’. This document reinforced what was instructed in Donum Vitae, thus establishing that In Vitro Fertilization continues to be seen as an illicit method to help infertile couples.
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Mallia, P. Problems faced with legislating for IVF technology in a Roman Catholic Country. Med Health Care and Philos 13, 77–87 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-009-9224-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-009-9224-9