Church Reps Participate in Symposium on Abortion Problems Held in Kyiv
KYIV–On 22 September, in Kyiv, a symposium “Moral-ethical aspects of artificial termination of pregnancy” was launched as part of the 4th National Congress on Bioethics. The symposium is attended by representatives of various denominations: Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Roman Catholic Church (RCC), and representatives of the Ministry of Protection of Health, the local government, and public organizations.
As RISU learned from Pavlo Berest, at the opening ceremony, Bishop Markian Trofymiak, chairman of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, noted that a person’s life is not that person’s private property. It is a gift from God. This is even more true of the life of a baby, even if it is still unborn. “Both the time of conception and of natural death is decided by God. A person should follow one principle: Thou shall not kill,” stressed Bishop Markian.
According to the participants, the issue of the great number of abortions is extremely relevant. Only according to official statistics, about 200 thousand children each year are not born due to the artificial termination of pregnancy. The number of abortions in our country is twice as large as in Europe on average. And one in ten abortions were performed on women under 19. The surgeries do not pass without a trace. They do harm to one’s health and psychological condition.
Archbishop Avhustyn (Markevych) of Lviv and Halych of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church noted that we really have a crisis of spirituality in society. But alone neither the church nor the state will be able to settle this issue effectively. The participants agreed that only joint efforts will allow improvement of the status quo.
It was noted that this issue is to be dealt with not only by medical people and priests: it is the work of teachers, parents, psychologists and the state, which should take care to provide possibilities for a young family to live in fitting conditions and bring up children. One of the organizers of the conference, a candidate of medical sciences, ex-minister of the protection of health(2007 – 2010), Vasyl Kniazevych, stressed that society itself should pay more attention to these questions. For, in addition to the large number of abortions, there is also the problem of orphans in the state: each year, 4-5 thousand children become orphans as their parents abandon them.
The deputy head of the Public Council of the Ministry of Health Protection of Ukraine, a priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Fr. Andrii Nahirniak stressed that abortions are not and cannot be a norm for women. In view of the moral-ethical, social and medical aspects, the participants of the symposium plan to develop and pass a resolution which is to be a guide for further progress in solving this urgent issue of Ukrainian society.
