Hi fellow PHIL 116 classmates and bioethics blog readers! I recently watched the short film, Extremis, on Netflix and as it is both a quick watch and very relevant to our course, I recommend it to all of you! To get an idea of the film, the trailer is below:
In a mere 24 minutes, Extremis follows the lives of a few patients and their families who are on breathing tubes, feeding tubes, and other forms of life support. The filmmakers did an excellent job demonstrating the opinions and challenges faced by physicians, surrogate decision makers, and the patient’s themselves. It addresses patient autonomy (or lack thereof) of patients who may not be able to express their end-of-life wishes. It also demonstrates the tug between prolonging life, which may do more harm than good, and ending it, which may have other ethical implications.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
I found it fascinating that the different families, all with similar situations, each had a different opinion on how to treat their dying family member. For example, in Donna’s case, her family opted to remove her from the breathing tube and she died one day later. This decision, while challenging and emotional, was the right decision in my opinion. As shown in the documentary, Donna communicated a clear dislike of the breathing tube and a general understanding that if removed from the tube, she would die. Her family also informed the doctor’s that she had discussed end-of-life care before and was comfortable with removal of machine support.
However, in Selena’s case, her daughter equates removing life support with murder and so her mother is hooked up permanently to a breathing machine and dies six months later. A family of strong faith, Selena’s daughter and brothers are hoping for a miracle. However, when we look at these cases, I wonder if those extra six months actually brought joy or benefit to the patient herself or simply removed the guilt from her surviving family. The film states at the end that she survived with a few periods of consciousness – but did that add to her quality of life?
All in all, it was a very thought-provoking film for me as we have been discussing these types of issues the entire semester. I encourage you all to watch and post your thoughts below!
Hi Julia. This looks very interesting! From the trailer it seems to look like a battle between the moral dilemmas surrounding the hospital. This brings me to the question of how art/film can impact and educate us in our own moral decision makings. Did you feel like you learned a lot from this film?
I did not read your spoiler section but I do look forward to watching this in my free time.
Hi James,
With this film in particular, it gave me concrete examples of the types of moral dilemmas we have discussed all semester. The issue is even more complicated when you attach a real person to the problem. I think the filmmakers did a good job at presenting the opinions of different players without expressing a native bias. They did not discuss whether or not the family’s choice was morally right or wrong; rather, they presented each case as a tough choice with no clear answer. Having the background knowledge of these types of issues from our class, I was able to better analyze each case myself and decide what I thought the best course of action would be. It was more of a mental exercise for me to decide what I would do in this situation rather than new knowledge of the issues.
Julia,
Thank you for posting and sharing this series with us. I have started watching, and I am inspired and taken back by the stories. These stories coincide with the discussions we share in class, like determining the quality of life and physician- assisted suicide. We talk about hypothetical situations and the ideas behind philosophers, but it is hard to truly imagine what it is like being in these situations. This film brings to life the emotions and feelings of the people that we read about in our hypothetical cases or examples discussed in our textbook. I believe it captures the emotions from both the patient and the physician side. Like other students in the class, my major is related to pre-health. I am excited and motivated to work with patients, like the ones in the film. We discuss the situations of patients in class, but we do not know yet what it is like to connect with them on a more personal level. Thank you again for sharing!
Sylvie