While recent national attention has focused on reforms to our country’s organ transplant system, we must pay just as much attention — if not more — to much-needed progress for
Falun Gong emerged in China in 1992, a time of a spiritual renewal in a land still under Communist rule, but one recovering from the horrors of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. Drawing on Buddhist traditions, Falun Gong combined meditation and tai chi-style exercises with a moral philosophy centered on the tenets of “zhen,” “shan,” and “ren” (truth, compassion, tolerance.) The word, in both English and Chinese, to describe this contemplative mind and body approach to life is qigong.
Being maintained in a brain-dead state artificially is part of xenotransplantation research, but experts debate the question: For how long and with what safeguards in place?