Chairwoman of Health Affairs Committee of Seimas: “AIDS is God’s Punishment for Immoral Behavior”

On November 14th, 2016 56 members of Lithuanian Peasant and Green Party entered the Lithuanian Parliament. One of the newly elected politicians, MP Agnė Širinskienė, was appointed as a Chairwoman for Committee on Health Affairs of Seimas on November 22nd. A controversy was caused when her Ph.D. dissertation Healthcare issues complicated by AIDS and ethical-moral responsibility of their solution was brought to light by Lithuanian media outlet Delfi.

Ms. Širinskienė has a law degree from Mykolas Romeris University and successfully defended her Ph.D. in theology at Vytautas Magnus University. However journalists found some controversial statements written in her published research. In her dissertation Ms. Širinskienė, among other things, claimed that “condoms are ineffective to prevent STDs”, and argued that “the only way to fight STDs is abstaining from sexual relations before marriage”. Furthermore, she states that STDs can be seen “as a punishment from God for one’s sins, particularly homosexual relations”.

Agnė Širinskienė has defended her point of view by stating that her dissertation was written in 2004, over 10 years ago, and is of no value today, since scientific research has progressed. However, her dissertation, supervised by professor and priest Andrius Narbekovas, still raises doubts as to its scientific credence, despite being written 10 years ago. Her colleague in Committee on Health Affairs of Seimas and a member of Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats party Antanas Matulas, was rattled by the fact that her dissertation was accepted in the first place and aimed some criticism towards Research Council of Lithuania.

Ms. Širinskienė has underlined her role as a lawyer of pharmaceutical law to establish her right to take a leading position in the Committee. Lithuanian Peasant and Green Party has previously promised to appoint politicians who have a high level of expertise in their respective field. Reacting to the scandal that Ms. Širinskienė’s dissertation caused, the party leader Ramūnas Karbauskis, during a video interview published by Alfa, emphasized the fact that Ms. Širinskienė’s personal opinions will not affect the new parliament‘s policy. However, he did not hesitate to point out that the newly elected parliament has no intention of voting on parnership for same-sex couples.

In an attempt to fight criticism, Ms. Širinskienė has expressed that she will not exceed the limits of the Hippocratic Oath established several centuries BCE.  The aim of oath is to make physicians swear to do no harm and serve the people. This oath has been modified to suit our current society values and human rights norms, but in the original version, abortion was established as harmful towards people. It remains ambiguous to which version of the Hippocratic Oath Ms. Širinskienė was referring. Her values might clash with science and human rights norms, and therefore are highly concerning not only regarding the LGBT* community, but women’s rights as well. One thing remains a fact: we will be on our watch.