The Top Ten Most Important Bioethical Films

Entertainment thrives on conflict and controversy. This means that characters in movies must always be put into situations where they must constantly make difficult decisions.

This is why the field of bioethics is so often used to inject controversy into movies. The purpose of bioethics is to create a journey from moral intuitions into moral arguments, so putting these ideas in movies is a natural step. The result is more serious than you might think: it means that the majority of the population is not getting their ideas about bioethical issues through reading case studies or listening to lectures, but by going to the movies. We're forming our opinions about issues like abortion, cloning, and assisted suicide by watching films, and nothing is more compelling and convincing than a well-crafted film. And since, ideally, in a democracy it is the public who will make decisions about how to legislate on these issues, this influence might be more "important" than we anticipate.

The technical name for this type of narrative application to ethical issues is called "narrative bioethics." Its not necessarily a good thing; after all, the first job of a movie is to make money, not to morally educate the public. But often, movies can be the first introduction a person has to a bioethical issue. Some Hollywood movies scare audiences with "slippery slope" projects of these issues, while comedies often include them because of the endless comedic possibilities involved. Let's take a look at some movies that I believe were important in making these introductions:

10. "Baby Mama" (2008)- Artificial Reproduction Technology (ART)
Yes, this comedy starring Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey and Amy Poehler is hard to take seriously. But it does look at the nuances of an issue rarely delved into in entertainment: the moral quandaries of surrogate pregnancies. The issue is taken pretty lightly, of course, but finally natural pregnancies are presented as being better.

9. "Multiplicity" (1992)- Cloning
This is another comedy that takes a bioethical issue, cloning, and presents it lightly. The main character decides to clone himself because he he's too stressed. Things go badly for him in the end as the clones wreak havoc on his life. Although we are nowhere near being able to create replicas of fully formed humans, the scenario that humans may be created as a means to an end is very real and possible (see HLA Typing). The extreme and unrealistic portrayal of cloning complicated a lot of viewer's opinions on "therapeutic cloning" which involves stem cell research. Movies like this complicated the public perception of the term "cloning" when awareness of the term was just starting, and I think it might have had implications beyond laughter and entertainment.

8. "The Cider House Rules"(1999) - Abortion
This movie features a doctor who performs illegal abortions because he is horrified by the consequences of the botched, back-alley abortions he has seen. He tries to convince his doubtful protege that he is making the moral choice. The movie spends a lot of time addressing the nuances of abortion, and the character who performs the abortions is not shown as morally reprehensible. This movie is important for the purposes of narrative bioethics because the moral status of abortion takes such a central and multi-faceted role.

7."Dirty Pretty Things"(2002) - Organ Trafficking
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, this movie is one of the only popular films to address the issue of organ trafficking. Set in London, it features an illegal operation run out of hotel where illegal immigrants sell kidneys in exchange for passports with new identities.

6. "My Sister's Keeper" (2009) - HLA Typing, Artificial Reproduction
This movie is the first Hollywood film to cover the issue of human leukocyte antigent (HLA) typing, which is sometimes used with ART to save children with leukemia. An embryo "savior sibling" is implanted, who will eventually serve as a donor of stem cells and organs to the sick sibling. In this movie, the "savior sibling" sues her parents for medical emancipation.

5. "Soylent Green" (1973) - Euthanasia
Euthanasia, or assisted suicide, is often debated on the world stage, and is now legal in a few European countries and in Oregon. Soylent Green is set in New York City in 2022, which is now an overpopulated dystopia where assisted suicide is legal. In the end, one of the main characters chooses this option after learning the horrible truth about the substitute food wafers fed to the people by the government. In a world of chaos and strife, his peaceful, sensuous assisted death is shown as one of the only forms of control humans have.

4. "Million Dollar Baby"(2004) -Euthanasia
This movie goes even more intensely than Soylent Green in to the question of euthanasia. The main character, played by Hilary Swank, desperately wants to be euthanised after being paralyzed below the neck. Finally, her mentor and boxing trainer, played by Clint Eastwood, helps her to die by giving her a shot of adrenaline, although initially very opposed to the idea.

3. "Artificial Intelligence (AI)"(2001)- Genetic Engineering, Artificial Intelligence
This memorably creepy sci-fi thriller is a modernized Pinocchio, about a little android boy manufactured to resemble a human and to virtually feel love. The film vividly dystopian style makes the audience uneasy about a future where genetically engineered robots replace humans down the slippery slope.

2. "Gattaca"(1997) - Eugenics, Artificial Reproduction
Gattaca is another movie that shows the bottom of the "slippery slope" of genetic engineering, a theme very popular in science fiction. This one of the most famous. Gattaca looks at how reproductive technologies facilitate eugenics. In this dystopia, children are selected though preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to ensure that they ahve the best hereditary traits possible. Any children not birthed with this option are destined to be janitors. Gattaca is one of the best illustrations of the issues inherent in artificial reproduction technologies, including the widening of the gap between rich and poor, social injustices, and loss of human identity.



1. "Jurassic Park" (1993)- Genetic Engineering, Cloning
Scientists have created an amusement park of cloned dinosaurs by cloning genetic material found in mosquitos trapped in amber who had fed on dinosaur blood. The fictional presentation which the characters viewed that showed this information was one of the first scenes to show the public information about DNA and gene sequencing. Because the movie was adventurous and family-friendly, more people tuned in to it than to other science fiction films, and the movie was the most massive exposure to genetic engineering that the country ever had. Jurassic Park contained a dark message: powerful science leads to disaster. This is a theme that remains in our public consciousness and is repeated in other science fiction films time and time again.