MaterCare International is pleased to announce Dr. Bogdan Chazan presenting in our 2019 Rome Conference programme.
Dr. Chazan worked most of his professional life at the National Institute for Mothers' and Children's Health. He was the head of clinical department of obstetrics and gynecology of this Institute and the deputy director for the science issues. He was formally a national consultant in obstetrics and gynecology. From 2004 to 2014, he was the Director of Holy Family Specialist Hospital in Warsaw. He was dismissed from this position after refusing to perform an abortion.
For 20 years, he has been a member of the Government Population Council. Currently, he works for the Caritas of the Przemyśl Archdiocese and at the Family Institute in Warsaw. He is an Executive Board Member of MaterCare International. In June 2019, he co-organized the International Congress 'Science in the Service of Life' in Rzeszów, Poland.
His Rome Conference presentation is entitled "The Last Hope for Life, Defending the Handicapped".
Abstract: The principle of respect for the dignity of human life results from its holiness. It is extremely disappointing that the lives of people - unborn children, sick newborns and elderly people are currently particularly threatened. Systematic killings of people "not supposed to live" began in Germany before World War II. Communism introduced the killing of unborn children on demand in Central and Eastern Europe. It is difficult to explain the fact that this homicidal practice was quickly adapted by most countries of the world, including democratic Western countries.
Attacks on human life are motivated by the desire to avoid suffering by the persons or their family members, the principle of privacy, protection of the natural environment. To confuse, some types of abortion have been called “therapeutic” abortion. Suffering and sickness are removed along with the person whose suffering we worry about.
Doctors are designated judges and executors of death sentences, their conscience, vocation and sense of decency are disregarded. The pressure on doctors who want to keep their conscience clean is enormous. Those who want to defend life are described as “inferior, outdated, non-innovative, anachronist” by the followers of secular fundamentalism. The conscience clause is often a fiction. Patients' conscience is also neglected, in spite of the fact that they all pay taxes for procedures that most of them object to.
The situation regarding legal regulations and moral and ethical principles regarding human life varies throughout the world. In Poland, it is improving, but in most countries it goes in the wrong direction.
We must not give up the defense of freedom of conscience. It is needed by a doctor to preserve dignity and humanity. We cannot allow the denial of a vocation or a medical mission. We cannot shift responsibility and remain silent in this difficult situation. The doctors' opinion counts, people listen to us. First of all, patients trust us, we are also members of various organizations, even authorities, we can express our opinion. Talking, however, cannot replace effective and consistent action. At last it is about our and our patients' salvation.
I would like to conclude by quoting the last sentence of the draft resolution of the 25th Congress of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations held last year in Zagreb, Croatia drafted by the outgoing president, Dr. John Lee from Singapore: “We Catholic physicians and health care professionals […] should expand and multiply our charitable pro-bono work in helping the sick, the poor and the vulnerable throughout world, even if it requires stepping out of our comfort zones and making financial and personal sacrifices.”
