Film Critique-Bioethical Imperatives - Scholarship Essay Example

With this concern, the essay examines the bioethical issues highlighted in the plots of these two movies by comparing and contrasting them, at the backdrop of the present relevant theories. Correspondingly, four ethical frameworks, including ‘justice’, ‘rights’, ‘duty’ and ‘virtue-based ethics’ will be addressed in this essay while comparing the above two films. The movies “And the Band Played On” as well as “The Rain Maker”, both addressed certain bioethical issues that emerged in the early 20th century based on the then conducted medical research.

However, the former was a drama based on the suffering of the people and their lack of consciousness, giving an indication of the gaps persisting in the conservative society, while the later complied with the dimensions of all mystery, suspense and drama. “The Rain Maker” movie elaborated on a financial crisis faced by a boy suffering from leukemia, who could have been saved if only the insurance company was on agreeable terms to pay for the bone-marrow transplant (Cohen, n.d.). Subsequently, the plot for “And the Band Played On” was majorly focused on the ethical issues surrounding the rapidly increasing rate of HIV infection in early 1980s, indicating the influence of political factors on such issues (Noonan, 2008).

The bioethics reflected in the latter revolves around the dimensions of medical ethics and its loopholes under the impression of strong socio-political judgments (Sass, 2007). Depending on the bioethical imperatives, four ethical frameworks have been considered to compare and contrast the plots in the two selected movies. The justice-based approach implies that people should be treated according to their respective hard work. However, the present world reflects a huge imbalance arising from uneven social power or financial power delegations (Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, 2014).

For instance, “The Rain Maker” focused on the inequality