Author: lifenetwork

MUM DAD & KIDS
European citizens’ initiative to protect marriage and family

Together let’s support marriage and family in Europe:

Marriage – a permanent and faithful union of man and woman with the purpose of founding a family.

Family – a father, a mother, and their children.

Family relationship – the legal relationship between two spouses, or between a parent and a child.

Yes, I support the request for an EU regulation that defines the meaning of marriage and family: marriage is a union between a man and a woman and family is based on marriage and/or descent.

A joint parliamentary committee agreed this evening that the decision on whether to license the Morning After Pill (MAP) should rest with the Medicines Authority.

The decision should be based on recommendations by Parliament and the authority should put national legislation before EU law.

The committee members also agreed that, should the products be licensed, they should not be sold over the counter but only with a doctor’s prescription.

Health Minister Chris Fearne welcomed the recommendations, which were unanimously approved this evening, saying that all members were now of the same opinion. He also said the government had always believed that the decision should be taken by the authority.

The recommendations also include making a distinction between different types of MAP and to allow doctors to serve as conscientious objectors and not prescribe the pill. Furthermore, Malta’s laws on abortion and embryo protection should be respected.

At the start of today’s sitting, former health minister and government whip Godfrey Farrugia presented five recommendations. These said that different forms of MAP have different modes of action and one cannot totally exclude that their mode of action does not preclude implantation of an embryo.

Malta prohibits abortifacients and embryos are protected by The Embryo Protection Act. Dr Farrugia said the EllaOne product and intrauterine devices are “certainly abortive.” The laws of Malta have to be strictly adhered to. He also insisted that, while the Medicines Authority fell under an EU parent entity, it had to give more weight to national law.

Dr Farrugia also said patients seeking to use MAP and IUDs have a right to make an informed, voluntary decision and choose that clinical pathway that safeguards their holistic health. Furthermore, the medical profession has a right to its professional and ethical integrity, and doctors should be free to act as conscientious objectors when deciding whether to prescribe MAP or not. In fact, the Ethics of Medical Practitioners state that ‘a doctor must always bear in mind the importance of preserving life from the time of conception till death.’

Finally, dispensed medication should be a prescription only. Public health issues and the wellbeing of the patients through a comprehensive health care delivery system have to be safe guarded.

He also received correspondence from Professor Anthony Serracino Inglott, the Chairman of the Medicines Authority, who recommended that Levonogestrel (Plan B) pills and Ella should be used legally in Malta but physicians should favour the first. The professor said both should be prescription-only in the first stage, but could later be considered to become pharmacist-recommended medicine. Thirdly, physicians and pharmacists may be allowed to be conscientious objectors to prescribe or dispense all or any emergency contraception, provided that they refer client to a colleague and do not charge for this referral.  Dr Farrugia said he held some reservations.

Health Minister Chris Fearne said it had emerged from the discussions that Levonogestrel  (Plan B) was non-abortive. Therefore it should be made legal in Malta. He also said that distinction had to be made between different forms of MAP and and some of the emergency contraceptives should be also be available over the counter from pharmacies.

Dr Farrugia said studies showed that Ella worked in the same way as the RU468 abortifacient drug and could abort a pregnancy. PN MP Michael Gonzi disagreed, pointing out that the dosage for Ella was much lower than that of RU.

Dr Farrugia said he would prescribe Plan B to a patient only after carrying out an ovulation test, which is 99.9% accurate. “If the test shows that ovulation would have occurred I would not prescribe the morning after pill, as a conscientious objector. The patient would be free to visit another doctor. Doctors should look at the patient’s health in a holistic way and see what is best for them. This is why I believe that community pharmacists should not be able to dispense MAP.”

PN MP Clyde Puli said great emphasis was being placed on the medical and scientific arguments but this issue was also about ethics. A balance needed to be found. He said there seemed to be disagreement even among the top experts and these should be clarified or else this committee would keep going round in circles. He also said that the Medicines Authority, not a parliamentary committee, should decide which forms of MAP were acceptable and which ones were not.

PL MP Deo Debattista said the main aim was to protect life from beginning to end. “From what we have heard one of the forms of MAP is not abortive so this should be available by prescription. But I do not believe that it should be available over the counter because there could be medical implications.”

PL MP Etienne Grech agreed that the decision should rest with the Medicines Authority. He also agreed that MAP should not be available over the counter. He suggested including a recommendation to the effect that doctors should apply the Gillick Principle, which allows them to decide whether they should prescribe MAP to underage girls.

Dr Gonzi said a recent UN report had concluded that neither form of MAP was abortifacient. Dr Godfrey Farrugia retorted by saying that the UN was wrong because it now considered life to start from implantation, rather than fertilization. “They have effectively moved the goalposts – that is why the UN says that they are not abortive.”

Health Shadow Minister Claudette Buttigieg warned that the committee was effectively debating whether a particular medicine should be licensed. This could set a precedent and requests for the licensing of other medicines could be made in future. “What these discussions have proved is that there is wide divergence within this committee. We simply have to hold the medicines authority for abiding by the law. The Embryo Protection Act is clear.”

Dr Paula Mifsud Bonnici said nothing should hold the Medicines Authority from issuing the relevant licenses if its studies concluded that the medicine is non-abortive.

Ref: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2016-10-05/local-news/Decision-on-MAP-rests-with-medicines-authority-no-over-the-counter-sales-committee-says-6736164743

Life Network Foundation Malta has once again participated in this year’s Freshers’ Week held at the University of Malta.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Miriam Sciberras and Ms. Mary Hilda Camilleri recently attended the Agenda Europe Summit in Warsaw Poland on the 26th September 2016 on behalf of Life Network Foundation Malta.

The Summit is an important pro-life, pro-family annual event bringing together more than 120 participants from 23 countries.

The summit discussed the intense local issues in view of the on-going human rights debate all over Europe. Life Network Foundation Malta is proud to be part of this debate and we are greatly encouraged by the pro-life pro family situation developing in Poland.

During last night’s first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, debate moderator Lester Holt did not bring up the issue of abortion. Although the issue sparks a huge divide between the two candidates neither of them fielded any questions on the most important topics on the minds of the majority of American voters who are pro-life.

For decades, legalized abortion has been slickly marketed, or “packaged,” by the feminist movement and the abortion industry as “empowerment” for women.

The Medical Council has told the Health Affairs Committee that the morning after pill is ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, as it expressed the concerns related to ethical, health and social issues.

Dr Doreen Cassar gave a detailed presentation before the committee which met this afternoon, explaining that the pill cannot be made available over the counter for a number of vital issues related, among other things, to health.

She explained that the pill will not work on persons of more than 77kg of weight. It can also have dangerous effects on people suffering from epilepsy or asthma.

“A doctor should always bear in mind the protection of human life, from conception till death,” Dr Cassar said before going into further detail. “We believe that the morning after pill is only the tip of the iceberg. There are major issues related to the medical history of the person requesting it. But we must go beyond the medical information.”

The Medical Council argued that it is vital for the pill giver to know the sexual history of the person. She noted that, statistics show an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. “We must ask ourselves, why didn’t the couple use any contraception? Why are they requesting the morning after pill? We must also ask if the person requesting the morning after pill came on his or her own accord, or because she or he was forced.”

The Council also insisted that the pill should be only prescribed by a medical doctor, otherwise there are serious issues one might face.

“There is also a psychological issue which one must analyse. Let’s see why these persons are not prepared to take care of a baby,” she added while saying that this pill can affect the health of the nation.

Quoting the medical schedule, Dr Cassar said that a doctor cannot prescribe something which will harm the mental and physical existence of the patient and that doctors cannot impose their views on patients.

Insisting that the morning after pill should not be given over the counter, Dr Cassar asked “if a male comes to buy the pill, who are we protecting? The child or the parents?”

Labour Party MP Etienne Grech said he agreed that the morning after pill should be given through prescription.

Finally, she concluded by calling on politicians that, since there is an element of uncertainty, they should see to “err in the side of caution”.

The report on the morning after pill will be tabled in Parliament on 10 October when Parliament resumes. Committee adjourns for Wednesday 5 October.

Ref: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2016-09-20/local-news/Medical-Council-believes-morning-after-pill-is-only-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-6736164064

Thousands of pro-lifers marched in Germany on Saturday to call for an end to abortion.

The Catholic News Agency reports about 7,500 pro-lifers participated in the German March for Life in Berlin. About 1,500 pro-abortion advocates staged a counter-protest during the march, according to local police reports.

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In his article entitled ‘United to protect children’ (August 6), Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela wrote: “When it comes to the well-being of our children, this is a topic that unites us all.” Yes, we are united on this.

He added: “I am part of a government which attaches great importance to protecting the best interests of children. When we hear of children being reported missing or, worse still, abducted, we are rightly alarmed. Each year in the EU, about 250,000 children are reported abducted or missing.”

Here we have to add: including some 300 unborn children from Malta, abducted and subsequently aborted beyond Maltese shores.

Abela also said: “Compared to other countries, Malta’s numbers are small, but that should not stop us from strengthening and improving the systems already in place.” There is widespread agreement on this in Malta.

Abela really put his finger on it the right thing when he said “ensuring children’s well-being and protection from harm will always be an intrinsic part of the Maltese people’s core values”.

We should add “…and we should do what it takes to keep it that way.”.

Then he gave some very grim statistics, like that international statistics show that 76 per cent of children are killed within three hours of abduction.

In 2013, at the Pro-Life Day manifestation in favour of life organised by the Malta Unborn Child Movement (MUCM) in Valletta, Abela, as representative of the Labour Party declared: “Abortion is illegal and that is how it should remain – it is nothing less than murder.”

He had also declared that “parents were obliged to do their utmost and protect their offspring from the moment of conception… Society and the State were also in duty bound to support mothers during their pregnancies and help them provide a good quality of life to their newborns”.

Last year, it was reported that government backbencher Deo Debattista had urged the government to set up a ‘pro-life’ clinic to help expectant mothers thinking of aborting their unborn children. This newspaper also quoted Rebecca Gomperts, the Dutch provider of abortions on the high seas, as having said that about 300 expectant Maltese mothers aborted every year.

Very small Maltese unborn children, who have a legal status according to a number of Maltese laws, are being abducted out of Malta to be aborted… very sadly we have to add, by their parents… in UK and elsewhere.

What we don’t know, so far, is if the body parts, the tiny baby hearts, lungs and brains of aborted Maltese children are being callously harvested and sold, that is trafficked for profit, to university and company laboratories like Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion business in the US.

What we don’t know, so far, is if the body parts, the tiny baby hearts, lungs and brains of aborted Maltese children are being callously harvested and sold

The government and civil society should unite even further in their resolve to protect also the lives of these 300 unborn childen.

The way forward has been charted already by Deo Debattista. The government should help in as many ways as possible a number of voluntary organisations already working in this field, to reach out to these women and offer them further compassionate, counselling and advisory services, to help them spare the lives of their unborn children.

Labour MP Etienne Grech, chairperson of the Health Committee of Parliament seems to have other views. He said it was his belief that there can be no life without brain activity, quoting JM Rollingring’s theory that : “The brain is the only unique and irreplaceable organ in the human body, as the orchestrator of all organ systems and the seat of personality.”

For him, it appears, human life does not begin at conception.

Grech should take note of a very significant statement made by a bioethics expert Pierre Mallia in July: “It is a fact that life does begin at fertilisation… and that science is not absolute, as many make it out to be.”

He also said that “ resorting to so-called scientific advice that many base their arguments on can also be tantamount to deception if you choose the arguments that suit you.”

Yes, the well-being of all our children, from conception, unites us all. This is reflected in the fact that, so far, all four Maltese political parties declare that they are pro-life. This is something which does not exist in any other country in the world.

This has been demonstrated in Malta every year, in February, for the last 10 years when the MUCM organised Pro-Life Days which included the active participation, and pro-life speeches, of political parties and even the President.

Our supreme aim should be to keep it that way and to continue “to be proud to be the best in Europe” and the world, not only, as the Prime Minister said, “in having the lowest unemployment in the eurozone and a declining poverty rate” but also in protecting all Maltese and other children living in Malta “from conception”, as our laws state so explicitly…until the end of life.

That includes not legalising the morning-after pill when there is still a lot of doubt, scientifically, if it is abortifacient or not, notwithstanding the fact that the chairperson of the Medicines Authority is advising the authorities differently.

It also includes not going for widespread embryo freezing in connection with IVF when it is very likely that in the process unborn children, still in the embryonic stage, can be killed accidentally, or negligently.

Tony Mifsud is coordinator, Malta Unborn Child Movement

Ref: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160917/opinion/Abducted-and-aborted.625236