Health Minister Chris Fearne announced that the government will be proposing embryo freezing, however t is being tied to forced anonymous adoption of any remaining embryos to other couples or individuals.
Fearne presented the highlights of a revamped law for in-vitro fertilisation on Wednesday to members of the media. The first reading was presented in Parliament this evening while a debate is expected to take place next week.
IVF is a treatment sought by infertile couples or individual women – whether for surrogacy or to have a child as a single mother – whereby the egg and sperm are fertilised outside of the body.
The fertilised egg, or embryo, is inserted inside a womb. Should the procedure prove successful, the embryo will then implant into the womb, and the women would then hopefully carry the pregnancy to term.
Under the current Embryo Protection Act, introduced by the Lawrence Gonzi government, embryo freezing was expressly forbidden. In order to increase the chances of successful pregnancies more than one embryo is inserted in the womb.
Due to embryo freezing being currently illegal, a woman may end up with multiple pregnancies, twins or even triplets, which can pose a significant challenge to a women's physical health. Therefore government is proposing to legalise embryo freezing for up to three embryos in the first cycle, and up to five in the second cycle should the first cycle fail, with the aim of increasing the rate of success.
Any embryos that would no longer be needed as a result of a successful pregnancy would be frozen. Infertile couples or single women may then anonymously "adopt" an embryo that was not used by another couple.
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