http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=148546
01 August 2012
The Malta Gay Rights Movement holds the Embryo Protection Act to be blatantly discriminatory on the basis of sexual orientation and is inherently homophobic in nature. It believes that by excluding same-sex couples and single people from its definition of prospective parents the Act goes against basic human rights principles such as the right to found a family.
According to the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity drawn up by a distinguished group of human rights experts, States should take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure the right to found a family, including through access to adoption or assisted procreation (including donor insemination), without discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, the movement said.
States should also take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure that any obligation, entitlement, privilege, obligation or benefit available to different-sex unmarried partners is equally available to same-sex unmarried partners. Enacting legislation that would deny medical treatment on the basis of sexual orientation would constitute a worrying precedent that has far reaching implications and engenders serious doubts in the minds of lesbian and gay citizens on this government’s commitment to equality.
MGRM further holds that the criminalisation of sperm and egg donation has absolutely nothing to do with the protection of the embryo and is based on a restrictive model of the family which no longer applies in today’s world. MGRM reiterates that it is not the role of the State to determine who can or cannot become a parent and the introduction of this Act would constitute an unjustified intrusion in the private lives of individuals.
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