The NFB is committed to respecting your privacy

We use cookies to ensure that our site works efficiently, as well as for advertising purposes.

If you do not wish to have your information used in this way, you can modify your browser settings before continuing your visit.

Learn more
Skip to content Accessibility

Bioethics (15)

  • Bevel Up - Drugs, Users and Outreach Nursing
    Bevel Up - Drugs, Users and Outreach Nursing
    Nettie Wild 2007 45 min
    Bevel Up follows street nurses as they reach out to people working in the sex trade, and people who use drugs in the alleys and hotels of Vancouver’s inner city. Most importantly the nurses reflect on the attitudes they bring to their work—attitudes that can make or break their relationships with the people to whom they provide practical, non-judgemental health care on a daily basis.

    The Bevel Up Educational Playlists offer viewers a dynamic way to learn through more than four hours of additional footage, interviews and a Teachers Guide. The interactive resource gives students and instructors in the healthcare field access to the experiences of practitioners who work with people who use drugs in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

    For more information, images, and clips, click here.
  • Discussions in Bioethics: Who Should Decide?
    Discussions in Bioethics: Who Should Decide?
    We're sorry, this content is not available in your location.
    Beverly Shaffer 1985 14 min
    One of a series of short, open-ended dramas designed to stimulate discussion of values and ethics in relation to modern medical technology. This film deals with questions arising from advances in pre-natal diagnosis. Joanne, a victim of spina bifida, discovers that her unborn child has the same disease. A decision whether to terminate the pregnancy must be reached quickly. When her husband says that all he ever wanted was "a normal baby," Joanne counters with "What is normal?"
  • Doctors with Heart
    Doctors with Heart
    Tahani Rached 1994 1 h 52 min
    Tahani Rached’s powerful documentary enters the doors of an AIDS clinic in Montreal. We meet a group of dedicated doctors struggling to provide health care to their patients. This 1994 film explores legal and ethical problems surrounding HIV/AIDS and the struggle against fear, rumours and prejudice. It is still relevant today. In French with English subtitles.
  • Discussions in Bioethics: The Courage of One's Convictions
    Discussions in Bioethics: The Courage of One's Convictions
    Gil Cardinal 1985 14 min
    In this short film, a 17-year-old girl refuses medical treatment that will prolong her life due to religious convictions. Her decision remains firm despite the pleas of her physician, who begins to question who has the right to determine a person's life or death.

    This short film is one of a series of short, open-ended dramas designed to stimulate discussion of values and ethics in relation to modern technology.
  • Discussions in Bioethics: Happy Birthday
    Discussions in Bioethics: Happy Birthday
    We're sorry, this content is not available in your location.
    Jefferson Lewis 1985 12 min
    One of a series of short, open-ended dramas designed to stimulate discussion of values and ethics in relation to modern medical technology. A young couple's marriage is threatened over a decision as to whether the husband should accept a job researching poison gas for military purposes. The wife is adamantly opposed. Regardless of their decision, someone will take the job. Should one morally accept responsibility for the consequences?
  • Medicine Under the Influence
    Medicine Under the Influence
    Lina B. Moreco 2004 1 h 17 min
    This feature documentary tackles a taboo subject: the tragic effects of life-sustaining medical treatment on infants. Through the courageous testimony of a handful of doctors and therapists as well as the shocking stories told by devoted parents of disabled children, this film denounces the lack of support offered to science's little "miracles." Once saved, the children are more or less left to their fate by a medical system that does not give them the therapy needed to improve their quality of life and develop to their fullest potential.
  • Memento Mori
    Memento Mori
    We're sorry, this content is not available in your location.
    Niobe Thompson 2016 1 h 29 min
    With remarkable access to Canada’s busiest organ-transplant hospital, this documentary brings viewers face-to-face with stories of life and death, and the impossible decisions that tragedy demands. From the very beginning to the final frame, filmmaker Niobe Thompson grips viewers in a relentless, emotional embrace and propels them from moments of unexpected joy to unbearable heartbreak.
  • Reflections on Practice: Access to Health Care
    Reflections on Practice: Access to Health Care
    Nettie Wild 2007 3 min
    Street nurse Caroline Brunt talks about the important role friendly, low-barrier health services play in increasing the chances that people using drugs will access timely health care. Nurse ethicist Paddy Rodney analyzes the impact of health-care providers who direct anger towards people who use drugs.

    *Watch the complete documentary.
    *View all 10 educational playlists.
    *Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
  • Reflections on Practice: Ethics & Practice
    Reflections on Practice: Ethics & Practice
    Nettie Wild 2007 4 min
    Street nurse Caroline Brunt and nursing-practice consultant Mary Adlersberg reflect on nursing practice when working with people who carry and use illicit drugs. Nursing ethicist Paddy Rodney talks about respect for autonomy and power dynamics in the health-care relationship.

    *Watch the complete documentary.
    *View all 10 educational playlists.
    *Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
  • Reflections on Practice: From Novice to Expert
    Reflections on Practice: From Novice to Expert
    Nettie Wild 2007 5 min
    Street nurses Caroline Brunt and Janine Stevenson, nursing ethicist Paddy Rodney, and nursing-practice consultant Mary Adlersberg talk about the importance of learning and legitimizing nursing harm-reduction practices.

    *Watch the complete documentary.
    *View all 10 educational playlists.
    *Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
  • Reflections on Practice: Harm Reduction
    Reflections on Practice: Harm Reduction
    Nettie Wild 2007 3 min
    Nurse Elaine Jones and ethicist Paddy Rodney talk about the ethical questions involved in showing youth how to safely inject.

    *Watch the complete documentary.
    *View all 10 educational playlists.
    *Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
  • Reflections on Practice: Boundaries
    Reflections on Practice: Boundaries
    Nettie Wild 2007 2 min
    Street nurse Janine Stevenson and nursing ethicist Paddy Rodney reflect on the complexities of boundaries when dealing with uncomfortable or unsafe situations.

    *Watch the complete documentary.
    *View all 10 educational playlists.
    *Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
  • Topics: Prohibition
    Topics: Prohibition
    Nettie Wild 2007 7 min
    Lawyer Eugene Oscapella and addictions counsellor Mark Hayden talk about the legal, social, and ethical dilemmas of bringing health care to people who use drugs and decriminalizing drugs to improve health.

    *Watch the complete documentary.
    *View all 10 educational playlists.
    *Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
  • Topics: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
    Topics: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
    Nettie Wild 2007 7 min
    Pediatrician Christine Loock offers effective and non-judgemental communication strategies for nurses and healthcare providers who work with people affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

    *Watch the complete documentary.
    *View all 10 educational playlists.
    *Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
  • Vital Bonds
    Vital Bonds
    We're sorry, this content is not available in your location.
    Niobe Thompson 2016 52 min
    Canada's organ donation rate is the lowest in the industrialized world – and every organ lost is also a life. For the first time ever on-screens, Vital Bonds gives viewers unprecedented access to the powerful real-life human stories of organ donation in Canada. Following a traumatic brain injury, the family of 28-year old athlete Matthew makes the decision to donate his organs. A two-week old baby girl named Harlow receives a donor heart from the far side of the continent. These are just some of the life and death stories covered with unflinching authenticity to show the lasting impact and major importance of organ donation in Canada.