The Cinema in the Teaching of Medicine: Palliative Care and Bioethics

Abstract

The cinema, as a window on human life and its ups and downs, is a very valuable tool for studying those situations that are most transcendental for the human being: pain, disease and death. Its idiosyncrasy and characteristics (ludic nature, sensorial and emotional impact, etc.) endow it with “formative skills” in many insurmountable situations, provided that it is backed up by a rigorous definition of objectives and a logical, coherent and structured educational design. In this sense, the range of films that are useful in medical education is very wide, so wide that it is difficult not only to make a compilation of titles and plots but also fundamentally to make a selection of those that tackle disease from perspectives that are interesting for teaching. In this article emphasis is given to two fundamental aspects in current Medicine, with multiple areas of contact and intersections: terminal diseases –and patients- and bioethics. In the first case an analysis is made of films full of human and scientific elements that make them highly attractive teaching instruments for the broad and deep study of different terminal diseases as well as for the analysis of their individual and collective impact: The Doctor, Wit, Ikiru, Begin the Beguine/ Volver a empezar, The Barbarian Invasions/ Les invasions Barbares, Marvin’s Room, Patch Adams or The 4th Floor/ Planta 4 a. The second theme tackled, bioethics, is essential in medical practice and possibly has greater specific weight in the field of palliative care. As an element facilitating decision-making, it is underlying in such burning issues as euthanasia, aided suicide, doctor’s responsibility, etc., magnificently reflected in films such as Miss Evers’ Boys, Philadelphia, The Fugitive, The Constant Gardener, Million Dollar Baby or The Sea Within/ Mar Adentro.