The initiative of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) to open a Department of Bioethics in its Faculty of Philosophy and Theology received the support of Dr. Yury Monczak, Assistant Professor of Genetics at the Medical Faculty of McGill University in Montreal, one of the top twenty universities in the world, the Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathology at the Jewish General Hospital (a McGill University teaching hospital), as well as a lecturer at the University of Montreal. Together with his parents, Myron and Bohdana Monczak, he has become the founder of the Chair in Bioethics at UCU.
UCU’s initiative is a response to the ever-growing need of modern Ukrainian society. “We want to provide fundamental knowledge in the field of bioethics and a quality moral and ethical education for doctors, scholars, philosophers, lawyers, as well as chaplains and medical workers in hospitals who might become members of bioethical committees at their medical institutions”, explains Fr. Ihor Boyko, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology. “The general goal is to humanize medicine and formulate a social viewpoint among the population of Ukraine regarding questions like the dignity of human life, respect for individuals, organ transplants, the use of reproductive technologies, euthanasia, surrogate motherhood, the use of stem cells, and so on.”
This is why the Monczak Family established an endowment administered by the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation in Canada for UCU’s Department of Bioethics in memory of two grandfathers and two grandmothers – the Mykhailo Monczak, Rev. Ivan Hawryluk, Daria Kohutiak and Sofia Kokotska Memorial Fund.
In our time,” stated Fr. Boyko “it is exceptionally important to have people who can help realize projects of extreme importance for modern Ukraine and the world, for without appropriate resources it is difficult to even consider their success and quality. We have a sufficient number of specialists who completed their licentiate and doctoral work in various universities abroad. I personally want to thank the Monczak Family, who joyfully responded to the idea of creating a Department of Bioethics at UCU. I understand that a great responsibility lies on those persons who will carry it out, but I believe that, by working persistently and with devotion, great results can be achieved.”