In some respects this is just a run of the mill “thriller”. Every 20 minutes or so another shark is jumped. But the subject it tackles is medical ethics. And I thought it did so very effectively. It really shows the difference between morality “up there” and morality that actually concerns you personally. And regarding something truly important – even vital – in your life.
It’s like the pro-life, anti-abortionist couple who suddenly find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy at the worst possible time in their lives. Some will go in one direction, some in another; but there is no longer any doubt that the issue is “just academic”.
Kant always seems so much more persusive when there is little at stake “out in the world”.
Admittedly, there’s no way I’d go along with this either. But existentially it would truly be an agonizing predicament for many. And I’m not paralyzed.
And then there are the “mole people”. Do they really exist down there? Seem to:
straightdope.com/columns/rea … -york-city
IMDb
In the movie, security for the illegal medical experiments is provided by two supposed police officers named Hare and Burke. In reality, William Hare and William Burke were two men in the business of supplying human cadavers to medical schools in 1820s Edinburgh - until it was learned that the ones they hadn’t stolen from graveyards, they had murdered themselves.
trailer:
youtu.be/V-KEeWtHg3k
EXTREME MEASURES [1996]
Directed by Michael Apted
[b]Det. Stone: Any time you need me, give me a call. It’s Stone, as in Sharon.
…
Dr. Trammel: You made a moral choice and not a medical one. I guess I’m kind of surprised, that’s all.
Dr. Luthan: On my right I see a cop with pictures of his kids in his wallet, and on my left some guy who’s taken out a gun on a city bus! I had ten seconds to make a choice. I had to make it. I hope I made the right one. I hope I did the right thing.
…
Dr. Luthan: Obviously, I’m having trouble understanding why it’s so easy for all of you to believe I just threw my life away which was going quite well. Why I suddenly out of the blue, took up drugs and threw it all away. It’s hard to grasp why that’s easier for you to believe than that someone in this hospital set me up to stop me asking about a patient whose body disappeared into thin fucking air.
…
Dr. Luthan [as Half-Mole stops at the top of a staircase, deep underground]: Is it down there? Well I’m not paying you until I get there.
Half-Mole [after a long pause and speaking for the first time]: I don’t go down there.
Dr. Luthan: How do I know you’re telling the truth?
Half-Mole: You’re still alive.
…
Mole-Woman: What are they doing to all these people?
Dr. Luthan: What do you mean, “all these people”? Claude and Teddy?
Mole-Woman: And the others.
Dr. Luthan: What others?
Mole-Man: Gramercy. That’s where we all go.
Dr. Luthan: What are you talking about?
Mole-Man: He knows! And this motherfucker’s in on it.
…
Dr. Luthan: Jesus…That’s why they do the lab tests.
Mole Woman: Who’s ‘they’?
Dr. Luthan [not appearing to hear]: That’s why they do the lab tests. Someone’s using healthy subjects.
Mole Leader: Why us?
Dr. Luthan: They think you won’t be missed.
…
Dr. Luthan: Jesus Christ. They’re playing with healthy spines!
…
Doctor: My name is Dr. Mingus. You’re in the Acute Care Ward at Riverside Hospital. You were found five days ago by the boat basin in Central Park. You’d been shot. You lost a great deal of blood. You’ve been in a coma until today. I have some tough news, Guy. Listen to me very carefully. Can you do that? You sustained a serious blow to your upper back. There was a severe cervical fracture of the sixth vertebra. Somehow we’re not quite sure your spinal cord was cut. At the moment, you’re paralyzed from the neck down. We did everything we could. I’m terribly sorry. Guy, listen to me. This is not the end of your life. Not by any means. I know it’s hard to accept, but you’ll learn to do things that you wouldn’t believe possible right now. You’re going to have a different life, that’s for sure but it can still be a great life and a fulfilling life, believe me. Whenever you feel ready, you can meet with our counseling people. We have an amazing program here.
Dr. Luthan [completely stunned and devastated]: Please…leave me alone.[/b]
But it’s all a set up…
[b]Dr. Myrick: Guy. It’s Dr. Myrick. I came over as soon as I heard. Dr. Mingus was a student of mine. I’ve seen your chart. It’s a terrible thing. I’d like to try to help.
Dr. Luthan: If you want to help me…let me die.
…
Dr. Myrick: What if there was hope?
Dr. Luthan: There isn’t.
Dr. Myrick: But what if there was hope? What would it be worth to be able to walk again, to be able to feed yourself? To go back to your old life? To be a doctor. What would you endure?
Dr. Luthan: What are you talking about?
Dr. Myrick: I’m asking you a question. What would that be worth?
Dr. Luthan: I can’t live like this.
Dr. Myrick: With proper care you can live 20 years like this. What would you do? What would you risk to change that?
Dr. Luthan: I have a C6 break in my cord.
Dr. Myrick: What if I told you there was a chance you could be healed? That there was a procedure that offered you a good chance that you might walk again? What would you do to make that happen?
Dr. Luthan: Anything.
Dr. Myrick: Anything? You’d better think about that.
[Dr. Myrick turn and walks away]
Dr. Luthan: What do you mean? What do you mean? Wait! Dr. Myrick?
…
Dr. Trammel: Quiet. We have to be quiet. You’re not paralyzed. It’s an epidural drip. I turned it off. You’re not at Riverside Hospital. This is Triphase. You’re not paralyzed.
…
Dr. Luthan: How can you be part of this?
Dr. Trammel: For my brother. He is paralyzed. I was driving the car when he was hurt. Because I was drunk.
…
Dr. Myrick [over loud speaker]: Guy, you have to understand. We never wanted you involved. All the way along, we tried to get you to walk away. I’m not a murderer. I didn’t know what to do with you. It was terrible to put you through it, but I had to do it. I had to make it real. You had to feel it to understand what it is we’re trying to do. And it is real.
…
Dr. Myrick [over loud speaker]: I can grow nerves. I can grow nerves and control their patterns. Thirty hours before he came to you, Claude Minkins had his spine surgically severed at the fourth vertebra. Teddy Dolson lived for 12 days. I can show you their charts. Complete neural regeneration. I can grow nerves. But I needed human subjects. That’s the awful truth. Growth factors only code to species. To do the work, you need human subjects. And most of them will die. These men they’re not victims. These men are heroes. Because of them millions of people will walk again. You see them every night. They’re lost or cold or stoned or worse. They have nothing. No future. No family. Nothing. But here, with us here they’re performing miracles.[/b]
See, a rationalization. That they aren’t permitted to give their consent is just further rationalized: If they really understood our humanitarian motives they would go along.
Dr. Myrick: I’m 68 years old. I don’t have much time. Three years with a rat to get to a dog? And after five years, if I’m lucky, maybe I can work on a chimp? We have to move faster than that. I’m doing medicine no one’s ever dreamed of. This is baseline neural chemistry, Guy.
Dr. Luthan: You’re killing people.
Dr. Myrick: People die everyday. And for what? For nothing. Plane crash. Train wreck. Bosnia. Pick your tragedy. Sniper in a restaurant, 15 dead. News at 11. What do we do? What do you do? You change the channel. You move on to the next patient. You take care of the ones you think you can save. Good doctors do the correct thing. Great doctors have the guts to do the right thing. Your father had those guts. So do you. Two patients on either side. One, a gold-shield cop the other, a maniac that pulled a gun on a bus. Who do you work on first? You knew. You knew. If you could cure cancer by killing one person, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t that be brave? One person and cancer’s gone tomorrow? When you thought you were paralyzed what would you have done to be able to walk again? “Anything.” You said it yourself. Anything. You were like that for 24 hours. Helen [his daughter next to him in a wheelchair] hasn’t walked for 12 years. I can cure her. And everyone like her. The door’s open. You can go out there and put a stop to everything and it’ll be over. Or we can go upstairs and change medicine forever. It’s your call.
Helen: Guy…
Dr. Luthan: Maybe you’re right. Those men upstairs, maybe there isn’t much point to their lives. Maybe they are doing a great thing for the world. Maybe they are heroes. But they didn’t choose to be. You didn’t choose your wife or your granddaughter to experiment on. You didn’t ask for volunteers. You chose for them. And you can’t do that. Because you’re a doctor. And you took an oath. And you’re not God. So I don’t care. I don’t care if you can do what you say you can. I don’t care if you find a cure for every disease on the planet! You tortured and murdered those men upstairs, and that makes you a disgrace to your profession! And I hope you go to jail for the rest of your life. [to Helen]. I’m sorry.
See? Conflicting goods. They are both right. They are both wrong. It just depends on what you assume is true.
Or it can all be reduced down to this: What’s right for me is what’s right period.
Unless, of course, as the objectivists do, you take the argument back “up there”.