Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/611961
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 DECEMBER 2015 15 I have met people who have frozen embryos, and they have this big is- sue that they cannot let those em- bryos see the light of day. They even dream about them. They have to go to counselling. They would have had two children… and would like to bring the rest into the world, but can't. And they don't want to offer them up for adoption because they are their own children. This is how they describe them…" No doubt, but isn't this also pre- cisely why it is unfair to turn up the emotive factor, by resorting to bla- tantly emotive language? And it's not the only tactic used, either. Con- currently with its campaign against embryo freezing, Life Network Malta is also resuscitating a Consti- tutional amendment petition which aims to prevent abortion from ever being introduced. None of Malta's three political par- ties have ever declared the intention to legalise abortion in Malta; all are resolutely against. So why press the issue at all, if not to fan fears that abortion is somehow 'imminent', in order to bolster support for a cam- paign about something that has nothing to do with abortion? "At the moment, the law as it is protects life from the moment of conception. If we somehow tamper with the law, and remove this pro- tection, that means we are opening a window which would eventually lead to abortion. Abortion always comes in gradually: first because of the ex- ception, then the exception becomes the rule. What we are saying is that if you reduce protection of life from conception, eventually abortion will come in. Abortion only comes in where life is not protected…" Meanwhile, this link has been fur- ther strengthened: this week, Dr Sci- berras's organisation invited Gianna Jessen – a pro-life campaigner and survivor of a late-term abortion car- ried out in the USA – to weigh in on an unrelated debate about assisted fertility. Abortions of any kind are not le- gal in Malta; the type we are talking about would be illegal in most Euro- pean countries. Jessen's experience has, in a word, nothing to do with embryo freezing. What was the pur- pose of bringing her to Malta, other than to further strengthen this 'link' between two totally unrelated is- sues? "She also happens to protect life in all circumstances," Sciberras points out. "She is in Malta, not because we are discussing abortion coming to Malta. She is here because she believes that life must be protected from conception. We brought her here because there is a danger that, if we lower our protection of life from conception, human lives would be at risk." But isn't this also a case of exploi- tation? This person went through a terrible trauma – which has resulted in medical issues that need not be gone into here – and Life Network Malta seems keen to milk her mis- ery for the benefit of a campaign that isn't even related to the issue at hand… "It isn't exploitation, no. She really loves and wants to speak about pro- tecting life from conception. And she's very happy to be in Malta, also because there is no abortion here. She feels safe." Well, she's also a little late to be any real danger of being aborted… but still, what is the relevance to the issues we are actually discussing in Malta? I'll concede that my line of questioning is pointed at this junc- ture. This is deliberate, because I think Malta's pro-life lobby needs to seriously be challenged on this. Isn't it unethical to go to such lengths – distorting issues, even exploiting an abortion survivor's experience – to engender antipa- thy towards a medical practice that doesn't even have anything to do with abortion? "No, that's your dishonest inter- pretation. We brought an abor- tion survivor to speak about the protection of life from conception, because it's a good thing to speak about protecting life from concep- tion…" At the same time, however, Dr Sciberras is also campaigning to in- fluence legislation that will have an impact on people who have a medi- cal condition. She is campaign- ing to limit the options available to these people who need medical treatment… "No, we are not trying to deprive childless couples of having chil- dren; nor are we trying to ruin their options. It is that they are not being told the truth. They are given false hopes: they are told that, if there is another technology, their success rate would be much higher. And this is not fair to them. If the suc- cess rates are the same…" But they're not the same: the suc- cess rate for Malta is 8% out of 51 cases in a year. That's one third the success rate of other countries… "You can't evaluate on one set of statistics. You have to also look at where we're going. If we have a new technique… if we have a high suc- cess rate compared to other coun- tries…" That's the whole point though, isn't it? We don't... Here she points towards the same papers mentioned earlier. Malta's success rate, she argues, can be im- proved if we bring over the right expertise, refine our technique, and give oocyte vitrification more time to prove itself. "The government can help in other ways, too. By giving couples extra chances, which are free. At the moment, they only have three chances on the NHS. Why not give them more chances, if there are more eggs? Why not extend the of- fer of free chances on the National Health Service? This was one of our proposals…" That's a fair point, on which we might even be in agreement. As there are unlikely to be any others, it seems a sensible place to end the interview. Interview Life Network Malta chairperson Dr MIRIAM SCIBERRAS puts up a spirited defence, when asked directly if her NGOs' tactics are manipulative and exploitative PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD