Obituary: André Wynen

Abstract

At an age when most future physicians would be finishing secondary school before starting university studies, 17-yearold Wynen joined the resistance movement, eventually leaving home and family to live underground. After completing medical studies at the Université Libre de Bruxelle, where he specialised in general surgery and later thoracic surgery, Wynen founded a 20-bed private hospital in Waterloo, Belgium, that over two decades grew to 250 beds and 80 physicians. In 1981, as the state of Oklahoma in the USA was preparing for the execution of a criminal by intravenous injection of a lethal dose of drugs, Wynen issued a statement saying: ...no physician should be reguired to be an active participant.