Tanya Borg Cardona appointed on bioethics committee

Tanya Borg Cardona, the former Broadcasting Authority chairperson who resigned from the post after being accused of “bullying tactics” by employees, has been appointed on the bioethics committee which among others is entrusted with looking into the ethical and legal aspects of end-of-life care.

Following increasing calls for a national debate on euthanasia in 2016, health minister Chris Fearne tasked the bioethics consultative committee to discuss end-of-life care in detail.

Borg Cardona resigned from BA chairperson in March 2017 in the wake of industrial action ordered by the UHM Voice of the Workers after employees complained of the attitude and incompetence in the broadcasting sector shown by the former authority’s politically-appointed chairperson.

Employees had said that it was impossible to work with her but Borg Cardona denied bullying claims and blamed the standoff on a lack of communication.

In 2016, the BA spent some €3,500 to cover the expenses of Borg Cardona’s trip to Stockholm for the Eurovision Song Contest, the first time a chair of the authority has travelled to the contest.

In the past Borg Cardona served as a member of the Housing Authority and on the restructuring board of the Vincenzo Bugeja institutes.

All members of the bioethics committee except former health Minister Vincent Moran have been retained. The committee is chaired by bioethics and patients’ rights expert Pierre Mallia and includes Labour Party candidate Nikita Zammit Alamango, philosopher priest Mark Montebello, Fr Mark Sultana, psychologist Bernard Caruana, gynaecologist Alberto Vella and healthcare professional Sylvia Spiteri.

The committee which falls under the Health Ministry advices the government on the ethical aspects and implications of all matters related to the practice of the medical professions, and of bio-technological procedures that may be applied to human life in all its phases.