Public Awareness and Lobbying: Group 3 Report

Introduction

Some may be offended by it, but the truth is that whether you want to promote a religious view, a war on Iraq, or bowel screening, obtaining sustained supportive public opinion depends on timing, selection of facts (also by the recipient), consensus among opinion leaders and, for the last two secular ”projects”, your performance. In some countries, such as Norway, it used to be unethical for the medical profession, and in practice prohibited, to advertise more than just your opening hours to attract patients. Times are changing, but we should still be required to give ”the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” when we advertise screening to individuals with no complaints who face the choice and the pressure of attending a public screening service that they may not have asked for. The first step of an awareness campaign is that we, the professionals and opinion leaders, scrutinize our own awareness: what we consider to be undisputable facts, what we strongly believe are facts, and what we just think, as religious believers do, may some day turn into facts.