Video

Overview

Authors: Dena Plemmons and Michael Kalichman, 2008

One of the challenges for teachers is to fully engage their students. To meet that goal, research ethics dilemmas can be made more compelling if the scenarios are presented in the form of video. In this context, video is meant to include:

Full length movies
TV shows
Custom presentations designed to address research ethics topics (e.g., whistleblowing, mentoring, authorship disputes)*

With the ready availability of many movies on video, and the high interest in newly released movies, teachers of research ethics have many opportunities to raise issues such as the portrayal of scientists in popular media, the role of whistleblowers, or protections of the interests of human subjects.

Video can be used in many ways, for example:

Short video (5-10 mins) presented in class and followed by discussion.
3-hour session devoted to showing a movie in its entirety followed by discussion.
In class discussion of selected parts of very well-known movies.
Students assigned to view a video or movie currently showing; hold discussion during following class meeting.
Student groups assigned to write scripts and create videos for presentation to the rest of the course; following showing of each video, group members responsible for leading a discussion of the case presented in the video.

* Because many videos specially made to address research ethics toics may fall short of the highest production standards, it is valuable to preface discussion by pointing out the need to look past the flaws in production and to focus on ethical dilemmas and possible solutions.

Resources

Selected Research Ethics Videos

In The Lab: Mentors and Students Behind the Scenes, University of Alabama Birmingham.
Information available online at: http://www.uab.edu/philosophy/ethics_center%20DVD.htm
Scientific Integrity Videos, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Five short videos illustrating ethical dilemmas in the context of biomedical research labs.
Information available online at: http://www.aaas.org/spp/video

Selected Movies

Arrowsmith
Blade Runner
Brazil
Charlie
The China Syndrome
Extreme Measures
Frankenstein: The True Story
The Fugitive
The Lawnmower Man
Lorenzo's Oil
My Fair Lady
Silkwood
Wit

Selected Documentaries

Deadly Deception
Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Experiment
The Race for the Double Helix
The Secret of Photo 51 (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/)
Unnecessary Fuss

Selected TV Movies and Episodes

Brave New World (90's made-for-Television version)
Dateline (9/20/02) film on Jessie Gelsinger
Nothing Human (Star Trek Voyager episode, analogy to Nazi Research)
NOVA and Frontline shows that highlight ethical issues (e.g., Making Babies and Sixteen ways to Make a Baby)

Selected Movies with General Ethics Themes

A Dangerous Woman
Erin Brockovich
Gentlemen's Agreement
Ghostbusters
The Insider
Glengarry Glen Ross
A Man for All Seasons
Mississippi Burning
Moonstruck
Our Mutual Friend
Paradise Road
Serpico
To Kill A Mockingbird
The White Rose
The Winslow Boy
Twelve Angry Men

Selected Video Websites

Film/Video/TV Annotations, Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database, New York University
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?catid=3&action=listcat