Scotland: Raising Awareness of Organ Harvesting at Edinburgh's Ethics of Transplantation Film Festival

In November, this festival used the medium of film to explore various ethical issues concerning organ transplantation, with the aim of stimulating public debate.

It presented an opportunity for the European Friends of Falun Gong to raise awareness about large scale organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners as described in the recent report by David Kilgour and David Matas.

The festival was organised by bioethical and medical scientists and attended by a wide range of people including medical doctors and interested members of the public. The organisers were happy to accommodate Friends of Falun Gong by permitting them to have an allocated slot in the post-screening panel discussions. An account of the Kilgour and Matas findings was presented at these times. All of the panelists were given a copy of the Kilgour and Matas report and expressed real concern about the situation in China. The management of the film theatre agreed to let Friends of Falun Gong have an information stall and banner in the foyer of the premises. Many cinema goers took information, signed the petition as well as engaged in lengthy discussions to find out more about the persecution. A significant number of them said they had already heard about the organ harvesting issue and found it appalling.

This was a really important event for raising awareness in an in-depth manner and for engaging with members of the scientific community involved in ethical issues concerning transplantation.