Jo Boute. A life in the service of women

As a young medical student at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Jo Boute became fascinated by communism, but he never became a hardline communist. He was too much of a scientist for that, imbued with the spirit of free inquiry. The Cold War atmosphere, which condemned everything emanating from the Soviet Union, did not, however, prevent him from finding the impetus for a number of innovations in gynecology in the Soviet Union. Along with Dr. Willy Peers, he was one of the first in Belgium to introduce the practice of painless childbirth. His social commitment and his constant search for innovations, his constant concern for the well-being of mother and child, would remain central throughout Jo Boute's medical career. It was in this spirit that he also became an advocate for the liberalization of abortion. Two issues in which he often played a pioneering role, often behind the scenes, and sometimes in the shadow of Peers.

Rik Hemmerijckx
Amsab-ISG, Ghent, 2004, 92 p., ill, soft cover

Also available in French: Jo Boute. A Life at the Service of Women