An international conference on medical ethics issues will be held in Vitebsk

The International Medical Conference "Problems of Medical Ethics in the Modern World" on June 7-8 will bring together about 90 participants in Vitebsk, the organizers informed a BELTA correspondent. Experts from Belarus, Nigeria, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Poland, France, and the Vatican will attend the annual conference, which will be held within the walls of the regional executive committee.

Representatives of the regional authorities, medical professionals, theologians, scientists, Vatican Ambassador to Belarus Gabor Pinter, and Father Dariusz Giers from the Vatican Department for the Service of Integral Human Development will take part in the forum. Medical workers from the districts of the Vitebsk region will also observe the conference proceedings via video link. Before the forum begins, the Apostolic Nuncio will familiarize himself with the work of the healthcare institutions in the regional center. Over the two days, conference participants will discuss the spiritual aspects of combating abortion and euthanasia, bioethics in modern medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, and transplantology.

Experts will also consider issues of alcoholism and drug addiction prevention, and the formation of a healthy lifestyle. Discussions will be held at the end of each of the two days of the forum. The conference is held at the initiative of the Vitebsk Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee with the participation of three state universities of the regional center: the Medical University, Masherov Vitebsk State University, and the Vitebsk State Academy of Veterinary Medicine. For the second year, priests of the Society of Jesus will serve as spiritual curators of the forum. At one time, Jesuits served in the territory of the Vitebsk Governorate in Orsha, Polotsk, and Vitebsk. The famous Jesuit, encyclopedic scholar Gabriel Gruber (1740-1805), brought fame to the Polotsk Collegium as one of the best universities in Europe.

Andrei Shcherbitsky, BELTA.