First Lady at the conference on the occasion of opening the Assisted Reproduction Centre in Martin

On Friday, 9 December 2005, Silvia Gašparovičová took part in the conference on the occasion of opening the Assisted Reproduction Centre – the Helios Sanatorium in Martin. Accompanied by Chief Doctor Stanislav Tomáš and his colleagues and listening to their comprehensive explanation, the First Lady took a close view of the Sanatorium. Then, she received from the hands of the Director a symbolic cheque for SKK 30,000. This sum was donated by the management of the Sanatorium to the Foundation of the First Lady to support activities in the field of health care. 

The conference, being held under the auspices of the First Lady, was attended by Dean of the Jessenius Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University and other specialists in the field of assisted reproduction from Slovakia and the Czech Republic as well as from Israel and Sydney, Australia.

„I am very pleased to know that there is another centre of assisted reproduction opened in Slovakia. I would call such a centre also a centre of hope for many couples longing for their own child so that they would be a complete family. Being a mother, I know what it means to a woman to give birth to her own child – it is the strongest experience a woman can have in her life. Therefore, I fully understand all those women and their partners who undergo complicated examinations and procedures with a single aim to have a long-whished child. When we come to realize that in Slovakia the number of artificial fertilizations is much lower than in many other countries, I believe that we should take it as our duty to search for ways enabling the highest possible couples to take part in needed cycles of artificial fertilization. The opening of this sanatorium is thus one of essential steps to help childless couples to have children,“ said in her speech Silvia Gašparovičová.

In addition, she said that through her Foundation she will seek to financially help childless couples of socially disadvantaged origins that already lost the title to refunding assisted reproduction performances by their health insurance companies.