Hollywood 2010 bioethics seminar #2: Repo Men
Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and organ repossession
Well, at 22% this is one of the
lowest ranking films on Rotten Tomatoes, but Repo Men does have something to do
with bioethics, so here is the trailer. The idea is that sometime in the
future, artificial organs are repossessed if the recipients fail to pay their
gigantic debts promptly. This is a task which Jude Law and Forest Whitaker
carry out mercilessly, giving an opportunity for lots of knives, blood, gunfire
and explosions. Then Jude Law’s character needs a new heart. And he can’t pay.
The imagination boggles. Well, actually, it doesn’t because the action scenes
have been cloned from every other B-grade action movie. But it does make you
think, however fleetingly, about the ethics of organ markets.
Michael Cook
Hollywood
organ donation
organ markets
Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.
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