Documentary Film Projects
Since 1989 the NIH has required that graduate students supported by its grants to have training in the responsible conduct of research, but up until recently, much of the training has been minimal and fragmented, using websites or short seminars. In response, CIRGE scholars are working in collaboration with SCBE's Program in Biomedical Ethics and Film to create two documentary films, to be used as a dramatic teaching tools that will engage students and scientists to think about the ethical, philosophical and social issues involved in their research. No medium is better suited to present research ethics than film, which has the
potential to educate far more powerfully than any amount of didactic explanation. Its visual imagery can portray complex situations from multiple perspectives and can easily engage viewers in meaningful discussions of the issues. Film is one of the only media forms that compel the viewer to experience and empathize with the situation deeply enough to truly weigh ethical dilemmas.
The Biology of Spirituality
As science continues to explore human biology and behavior, are there areas of inquiry that will change our understanding of what it means to be human? This 15-minute documentary will profile two deeply spiritual people, working at the frontiers of genetics and neuroscience, as they conduct studies that look at the biological underpinnings of faith and religious experience.
As the film follows the course of their research in cinema verite, it shows resistance emerging from both the scientific and religious communities, revealing that the centuries old rift between science and religion is alive and well today. It also raises thought-provoking questions about what are the boundaries of science and who we are as human beings. What does it mean to study religion with science and what does it mean when you find something? Can prayer be reduced to brain activity? Are some of us hardwired through our DNA to understand God better than others? And if so, why? Is religion good for our health? Is there a societal benefit to science and religion working together?
Citizen Scientists
This film will document the rise of patient advocacy groups, and their increasingly dramatic impact on the nature and scope of scientific research. In the last 10 years, the parents of children with genetic disorders, often connecting through the internet, have founded blood and tissue banks that give them the leverage to work with the scientific community, and change the direction of their research. Energized by the drive to save their own children, the groups' goal is to focus research in directions leading most rapidly to treatment. The accomplishments are astounding: genes for several disorders have been found (with advocates names on some of the papers and patents), genetic tests are on the market, and now some treatments are beginning clinical trials. But what does this mean for scientists? What is the relationship and obligation of the researchers to their subjects?
Citizen Scientists will follow three groups at different stages in their quest for a treatment - one at the beginning stages of formation, one whose gene discovery has lead to a genetic test, and one group at the beginning of a clinical trial. The film will explore the way that these groups are dramatically changing the traditional model of scientific research, and look at the ethical and social issues raised by this change.
More information on the Biomedical Ethics in Film Program
Project Director:
Maren Grainger-Monsen, MDSenior Research Scholar, Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics
(bio/cv)
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