Morality and public policy

Abstract

The publicity given to the first successful human fertilisation raised widespread public discussions, particularly on the local media, on the complex ethical, social and legal issues related to artificial human procreation. Shortly after this breakthrough in local medical history, a parliamentary question urged the National Bioethics Consultative Committee to issue ethical guidelines and called for a legal framework. Though this event caught the attention of the general public, artificial insemination has been taking place in Malta, as elsewhere, for a long time. An article published in one of the leading daily papers announced that the number of Maltese married couples who are having children using donated ova or sperm is increasing.