Resources

Given the fluid nature of the discipline and practice of Bioethics, we will continuously update this section to inform patterns and trends in an areas of interest, research, and practice.

 
 

Artistic Works Influencing Bioethics Engagement and Awareness

As previous Chair of the President’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, Dr. Amy Gutmann, has stated in several addresses: bioethics is everywhere and we should be interested in the study of bioethics because the practice of bioethics is interested in each and every one of us. Many who are engaged in the practice and study of bioethics can point to a particular piece of literature, film, or art that fueled their passion and interest in Bioethics.  We welcome you to share a source, or a few!, that was your ah-ha moment or sparked your engagement.

There have been so many contributions in the arts, whether intentional or not, to the field of Bioethics. This list is just a starting point and does not even begin to capture the many scholarly contributions. Rather, this list is intended to connect among ourselves with shared artistic experiences - literary, pieces of art, film - that either gave breath to or furthered one’s journey into identifying how bioethics is an all-encompassing space. 

Literature

  • The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman

  • Sick Girl, Amy SIlverstein

  • My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult

  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

  • Being Mortal, Atul Gawande

  • The Scalpel and the Silver Bear, Lori Arivso Alvord and Elizabeth Cohen Van Pelt

  • Complications, Atul Gawande

  • The Frontal Lobe, Katrina Firlik

  • The House of God, Samuel Shem

  • When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Harold Kushner

  • The Dressing Station: A Surgeon’s Chronicle of War and Medicine, Jonathan Kaplan

  • If It Die, Andre Gide

  • A Family of Doctors, David Hellerstein

  • Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom

  • Cancer Ward, Alexander Solzhenitsyn

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, Ken Kesey 

Film/ TV

  • Patch Adams

  • Good Will Hunting

  • Erin Brokovich

  • John Q 

  • The Handsmaid Tale

  • Normal

  • The Boy in the Plastic Bubble

  • Wonder

  • Something the Lord Made

  • Losing Isiah

  • Gattaca

  • Sound and Fury 

  • House MD

  • The Good Place

  • Westworld

  • Black Mirror

  • Advantagous

Plays

  • Wit

  • Whose Life Is It Anyway?

  • Informed Consent

Visual Art 

  • The Four Stages of Cruelty, William Hogarth

  • Wiliam Hunter Lecturing at the Royal Academy, Johan Zoffany

  • Expression of Clinician Well-Being: An Art Exhibition, National Academy of Medicine

Dance