Summary: The Nuclear Age-sprung upon the world with the atomic bomb-remains a bitter memory. How biotechnology, with its power to change life on Earth at the most fundamental level, will be viewed in the decades to come depends on decisions being made right now. This program confronts viewers with some of the ethical and moral implications of cloning, stem cell research, and animal testing. Commentary...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Since scientists first began to cut and splice DNA in 1973, biotechnology has produced everything from super rice to super drugs. Considering a burgeoning global population, and increasing demands for new, more effective drugs, biotechnology may be, as host Fred Dorey asserts, "the only answer we've got. In this program, a group of experts, including Uwe Reinhardt of Princeton University and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Government agencies and professionals who deal with damage claims are literally trying to determine the dollars-and-cents worth of human life. How do we decide what is an efficient annual cost for a nursing home? Or the cost for a new liver? And who is going to pay? Dr. Willard Gaylin is a practicing psychiatrist and president of the Hastings Center, an institute devoted to studying the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: On August 9, 2001, President George W. Bush announced his support for federal funding of limited embryonic stem cell research. This NewsHour program offers a revealing snapshot of that historic intersection between science and public policy. It features a panel of ethicists and researchers expressing their views on the President's decisions-including University of Chicago professor Leon Kass,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: This emotionally charged program filmed in Australia explores the ethics of whether, and in what circumstances, women and men with severe mental or physical disabilities should ever be sterilized. All parties involved desire a better quality of life for people who it is believed are incapable of fully comprehending and then acting on the issues for themselves. But is sterilization, performed in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Organ transplantation is one of the major breakthroughs of modern medicine but tragically out of reach for many thousands of people whose lives might be saved. Without enough organs to go around, an effort has emerged to persuade living Samaritans-relatives, friends, and even strangers-to donate one of their kidneys, yet still the shortage persists, and it remains against the law to pay people...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Imagine a future in which physical strength and assertiveness are the top-selling items on "baby menus." This program explores that possibility and other frightening implications of market-driven genetic engineering. Showing how the government-funded Human Genome Project has become highly lucrative for pharmaceutical companies, the video examines cases of exploitative gene harvesting in Iceland...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: When a loved one's fate lies in another's hands, the decisions can be overwhelming. This program, hosted by NewsHour's Ray Suarez, follows two families as they grapple with life-and-death decisions inside an ICU. A doctor, an ethicist, and others help these families through the process of making decisions on behalf of those who are no longer able to communicate their wishes. La Vera Crawley, of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Many who followed the Terri Schiavo case struggled to make sense of the flurry of opinions it generated. This NewsHour program, recorded during the last days of Terri Shiavo's life, presents two opposing yet thoroughly reasoned perspectives on the issues. Beth Israel Medical Center neurologist Dr. Russell Portenov explains the medical justification for removing the feeding tube, while Dr....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: The technology of cloning has raised a host of moral, ethical, and religious questions, and this program examines many of them. The "dangers" of cloning, from shrinking gene pools, to the development of a "super race," to fears that cloned DNA could introduce genetic flaws into the population, are examined. A theologian discusses how cloning changes our notion of soul. Harold Shapiro, chairman...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: To decrease the suffering of terminally ill patients, some doctors routinely prescribe strong painkillers-medications that, in effect, actually hasten the patient's death. What distinguishes such treatment from physician-assisted suicide? This program discusses legislative initiatives designed to protect patients from "disguised euthanasia"-and addresses the volatile question of whether such...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: PGD, or pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, allows doctors and parents to screen brand-new embryos for genetic diseases. This program illustrates the PGD process and what it implies-from lifesaving medical solutions to what many see as the Nazi-esque disposal of life. The experiences of couples considering or undergoing PGD are featured-including the story of Leanne and Stephen, who ignited...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Is the line between being male and being female blurrier than we think? What are we to make of the fact that humans differ from chimpanzees by only a few nucleotides? At what point do we decide a fetus has "the right to life," and that someone existing on life-sustaining technology has the right to die? In this TEDTalk Dr. Alice Dreger questions the categories that are often used to define...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Long-term healthcare is in crisis in America. This Fred Friendly Seminar moderated by Dateline NBC correspondent John Hockenberry takes a hard look at the inadequacies of a medical system dangerously skewed away from the treatment of chronic health conditions. Role-playing three interrelated scenarios, Charles Cutler, of the American Association of Health Plans; Richard Bringewatt, of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Providing comprehensive public access to affordable, quality health care is a mammoth struggle-even for wealthy societies with the political will to do so. This CNBC program looks at technological solutions that could potentially slash medical costs, reduce inefficiencies, and create tailor-made treatments for the individual patient. The program begins by exploring issues in personalized...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Technology is taking the field of biometrics to new levels of accuracy and efficiency. But is the price of such security, achieved by turning over unique bodily information to governments and private companies, too high? And is biometric data really as foolproof as its proponents say? This program travels the globe to showcase examples of high-tech biometrics in action, including electronic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Is the surveillance society inevitable? In No Place to Hide, Peter Jennings examines high-tech monitoring methods that promise greater safety and security but threaten personal privacy. The program shows how Acxiom, ChoicePoint, and other companies use supercomputers to obtain data on more than 90 percent of American households-and how law enforcement and government intelligence agencies...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005