University to Support International Biomedical Ethics Film Festival

Along with the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics and the Centre for Healthcare Ethics at Duquesne University, USA, St Mary’s University, Twickenham is to sponsor this year’s International Biomedical Ethics Film Festival in Edinburgh. The three-day event is to take place from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd November at the Edinburgh Filmhouse and will explore The Moral Status of the Human Embryo. During the festival, filmgoers and invited experts will explore questions such as ‘Is the human embryo just a pile of cells or is it a person like any other human being who has been born?’ and ‘What are the ethical consequences of each position for society?’ The films to be shown include Romanian movie 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in which a poor college student seeks an illegal abortion being well past the first trimester of pregnancy. Panorama documentary The Great Abortion Divide will be shown on the second day where Victoria Derbyshire investigates the ongoing controversy over abortion and asks if it is time to change the law in the UK. The last day sees the showing of 2007 US film Juno, in which a high school student decides to give her unborn child up for adoption. At the end of each screening, a discussion will take place between the audience and a panel of invited experts in bioethics, science, law, medicine and politics including Dr Trevor Stammers, the Programme Director for Bioethics and Medical Law at St Mary’s. For more information and to book tickets, please visit the Filmhouse Cinema website.