From September 7 to 9, the city of Slavonski Brod, in Croatian Yugoslavia, was the site of a conference on the Future of Medicine in Europe.
The goal of this conference was to help shape medical ethics and policy in the emerging countries of Eastern Europe along pro-life and Christian lines. It was attended by several hundred East European doctors, nurses, other health care workers, priests, nuns and ministers.
Conference sponsors included the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Life, Human Life International, Christian Democrats for Life/Germany, the Physicians Association of Croatia, the Slavonski Brod Family Center and other groups. It was organized by Marijo Zivcovie and Msgr. Marko Majstorovic, heads of the Family Centers in Zagreb and Slavonski Brod, respectively.
Lectures were given on medical ethics, abortion, euthanasia, the family, feminism, and natural family planning. Speakers included Fr. Werenfried Van Straaten of Aid to the Church in Need, Dr. Phillippe Scheppens of Belgium, Dr. K. F. Gunning of Holland and Drs. Evelyn and John Billings of Australia.
In addition, there were many speakers from Yugoslavia and its neighboring East European countries. Kathie O’Keefe, representing Rescue Outreach, addressed the conference on the subject of the history, theory and practice of pro-life rescues; this was the first time a European medical congress had heard the rescue message.
The meeting concluded at a nearby river where the parish priest prayed, then blessed a wreath which was tossed into the river by two small altar boys. This was to commemorate the unborn children destroyed by the abortion holocaust.
Joe Wall is the European correspondent for The Interim.
