In his article ‘Do not become an għonnella party’ (July 22), Fr Joe Borg writes “that people and MPs have a duty and a right to vote according to their conscience, whatever their conscience mandated. This is a basic tenet of Catholic moral theology”.

He is right.

What Fr Borg failed to mention is that both political parties represented in the House of Representatives did not give a free vote to their respective MPs with regard to the preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) bill.

PGD has posed issues of conscience on MPs from both sides of the House. 

Most MPs represented in parliament voted in favour of PGD, except for Michael Falzon, Clint Camilleri and Jo Etienne Abela who were abroad on government-related work, and Ian Borg, Robert Arrigo, Jerome Caruana Cilia and Chris Said who were excused.  Three Nationalist Party MP’s voted against, namely Ivan Bartolo, Alex Borg and Adrian Delia.

Miriam Dalli and Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici were absent. Yet, Mifsud Bonnici made a public statement that he was in quarantine due to COVID and that he opposed the bill and, had he been present in the House of Representatives, he would have voted against it. 

Fr Borg refers to those Nationalist MPs who voted ‘yes’ as having taken a “reasonable position”.

Although Fr Joe recognises that MPs have a duty and a right to vote according to their conscience, yet, he is silent on whether the main political parties should have given a free vote on this subject.

While I do not want to enter into the scientific technicalities of PGD, I would like to make just one observation:  PGD has to do with selection, selecting who will be transferred to the womb and who will remain frozen in the laboratory ad aeternum.  

PGD reminds me of Nazi Germany, whereby the Nazi regime, in particular, the notorious Josef Mengele, used to experiment and decide who is to live and who is to die.

It also reminds me of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. So, what is this “reasonable position”?  

There is now a growing sector of the electorate who are convinced that they are no longer represented- Joseph Bugeja

I, for one, would never have imagined that the Nationalist Party would, on a matter of conscience, impose a miscalculated diktat – no free vote. 

I would have expected that, without going into the merits of the case, the party which has always been at the forefront on issues pertaining to the safeguard of liberty would never have denied freedom of conscience to its MPs on such an issue.

So sad and so out of touch with the electorate who still values life, who still values the dignity and the centrality of the person, who still values persons with special needs!

Yet, implying that the MPs who voted against are “right-wing conservative politicians” and referring to pro-lifers as the “għonnella lobby” is totally out of place.

Enough is enough.

This latest PGD saga will continue to discourage the electorate who still have a conscience, and who believe in the freedom of conscience, from participating in political life.

There is now a growing sector of the electorate who are convinced that they are no longer represented, with the exception of the very few who have shown courage, integrity and a high moral ground.

Surely, we still have MPs who have a conscience, who are authentic and who would fight for the weak and the vulnerable, irrespective of whether they practise any religion or are agnostics.

Joseph Bugeja is a lawyer.

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