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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Albino Aroso

Albino Aroso 1923-2013 Doctor, university teacher and political leader

Albino Aroso Ramos was born on 22 February 1923 in Canidelo, Vila do Conde.
He was the third of six children who lost their father at an early age, but received the support and example from his modern mother, who instilled in him a sense of respect for family life and, in particular, for women.
He completed a degree in Medicine in 1947 at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, with the final mark of 16 out of 20.

During the military service, he attended the Course for Non-commissioned Officers, and started the clinical activity during the second phase of the course, as a medical officer. At that time, he became interested in surgical problems and attended the Surgery Service at the Main Military Hospital.

In August 1948, he joined Hospital de Santo António, in Porto. Four months later, he was appointed extraordinary doctor of Service 5, and joined one of the teams of the Emergency Department at that hospital.

In 1953, Albino Aroso competed for the post of Assistant Doctor at the Hospital de Santo António, and took up office in 1974. At that time, he received a sponsorship from the World Health Organization which allowed him to train in several European countries (England, Holland, Germany and Sweden).
In 1956, he received a further sponsorship from the Santa Casa da Misericórdia do Porto (Hospital de Santo António), and trained in Vienna and Geneva.

Between 1959 and 1965, he served as Deputy Clinical Director of Hospital de Santo António. In the meantime, he joined the Inter-Hospital Commission of Porto and participated in the Porto Commission for the study of the medical career, and subsequently was elected for its counterpart national commission.

During the 60s, he contributed to the establishment of the Association for Family Planning (1967), participated as a delegate of the Medical Associations, focused on the integration of doctors from the central hospitals in the corresponding careers (1968). In the following year, he took up the position of Director of the Gynaecology Department at the Hospital de Santo António, where he remained until the end of his career. He created the first public and free family planning consultation in this hospital (1969).

In 1974, Albino Aroso was elected for the Executive Committee for the European Region of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. In the same year, he began using intrauterine devices for the first time in Portugal, handed out free of charge. In the following year, he was elected for the Medical Management of Hospital de Santo António.

Albino Aroso was also involved in national politics and taught in public higher education. He was State Secretary for Health during the 6th Interim Government (1976) and Deputy State Secretary for Health during the 11^th Constitutional Government (1987-1991). He taught at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS), of the University of Porto, of which he is, today, a retired Associate Professor of Gynaecology /Obstetrics.

At the turn of the 21^st century, he became involved in civic causes, participating actively in the movement towards the decriminalisation and defence of the right to abortion.

He was the President of the Portuguese Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, honorary member of the Portuguese Society of Breast Centres and of the Portuguese Society of Clinical Sexology, and also an retired member of the Portuguese Academy of Medicine, a member of the National Geographic Society and of the New York Academy of Sciences.

The respected and often honoured promoter of family planning in Portugal has, throughout his lifetime, proved to be an intervening man in civic matters and a doctor with a strong sense of ethics and of great humanity. A defender of dignity and of women’s rights, Albino Aroso was, among others, responsible for placing Portugal among the top 5 countries worldwide in terms of infant mortality indicators, through the work conducted in the Maternal and Child Health Commission.
Albino Aroso died on december 26, 2013.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2009)