Eladio Abreu, senior lecturer of biology with Amina S. McIntyre, playwright
Bioethics and Vulnerable Populations class created a series of short films centering actual cases of injustice in the healthcare. Alternative Medicine, A Missing Heart, Misgivings, and Race and Recovery each amplify the specific communal concerns that impact individual families, and offer and entryway into a conversations to better support these communities in the future.
Alternative Medicine
Amery Eggle, a family man, is stricken with a new, mysterious virus which has gained widespread media attention including reports and opinions from those outside of the formally educated medical community – including the likes of President Tweet. When presented with some poor advice from his friend with a track record of gullibility, Amery is easy to brush her off. But as Amery becomes more desperate for a cure to his illness, things blow up and eventually… ~POP~
A Missing Heart
In Virginia, 1968, a black factory worker named Bruce Hart’s heart was transplanted without his consent to a white businessman’s daughter. A Missing Heart, based on the true story of Bruce Tucker, highlights the ethical violations that often happen in medicine, and demonstrates the effect of bioethical wrongdoings on family.
MISGIVINGS
MISGIVINGS is a play about mistrust and misinformation in reproductive health observed in three distinct generations, in parallel manners and with a focus on Black Women. The daughter, Amelia, wants to learn more about advancements made in reproductive health, but her mother, Eloise, is hesitant to explore further because of her own past experience. Over the course of the play, Eloise and Amelia learn from one another’s unique perspectives and generational differences.
Race and Recovery
Race and Recovery depicts the recovery process from surgery and how it differs between races. It follows two women as they recover from the same surgery, and shows the impacts of both wealth and skin color on post operative recovery.
