Dreamy Spires and Ethical Nightmares

I have just got back from Oxford where I have been attending the biennial Evidence Live conference – a major international gathering of ‘the Great and the Good’ in the world of evidence-based medicine. I was there representing CBET (the Centre for Bioethics and Emerging Technologies at St Mary’s) and giving a poster presentation. Posters had to be displayed in the Oxford Examination Halls from 7am so I had booked myself into a room in St Peter’s College the previous night. It would have been fine in the summer but the small single storage heater could not cope with the freezing spring temperature as I shivered for St Mary’s most of the night! Carrying the A0 size poster - supplied with customary efficiency from Reprographics, together with dozens of accompanying brochures from the Edinburgh Filmhouse through the streets of chilly early morning Oxford did make me wonder if all the effort involved was going to be worth it. So why was I there?  Well, CBET is passionate about engaging the general public in bioethical debate and nine years ago Calum MacKellar, the research director of the Scottish Council for Human Bioethics and one of our visiting professors, obtained a large grant to fund the first Edinburgh Bioethics Film Festival in 2005. The weekend, which focused on films about cloning, attracted around 500 paying punters and the Festival has continued every year since – usually in late November. I was first invited to go and be a panellist in 2011 when the theme was Human Dignity. I was asked to comment on and answer questions from the audience for the films Moon and Project Nimh. I really enjoyed the experience and the whole of the rest of the Festival weekend and was amazed to discover that as far as the Edinburgh team knew, this was still the only Festival of its kind not only in the UK but worldwide.  Hence my heading for Oxford to give our poster presentation on The Edinburgh Bioethics Film Festival – A Model for Cloning?, with the aim of raising the profile of the festival and to hopefully stimulate replication of the idea in other cities and countries. There were hundreds of posters being shown at Evidence Live, so each presenter was given only two minutes to make our pitch, which I duly did on the first day of the conference. I had a number of useful conversations with clinicians and academics from all over the world, all of whom expressed surprise that the festival idea had not been tried elsewhere but none of whom knew of any event like it in their home countries. On my second night at the conference, I went to a warm cinema to escape the chill of the streets and St Peter’s and to watch Side Effects – a Hitchcock-style thriller, which had some strong bioethical themes in it relating to confidentiality, and exploitation of patients in clinical trials among other things. The film may well find its way into a future Edinburgh Bioethics Film Festival or a similar event elsewhere. The conference was very well attended and we were told on the second day it was trending on Twitter (whatever that means!) with over 6 million followers. I made a mental note to get on Twitter at some point, as it seems to be the way at present to get events known and publicised fast, easily and effectively. In the meantime, until I make my first tweet, you can find the poster on the conference website where it is likely to  be seen by far more people worldwide in future months than could possibly have attended even this very large conference.  And if any SMUC blog readers come across other bioethics film festivals other than in Edinburgh in future months, please let me know. Dr Trevor Stammers