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The Sunday Forum, February 10, 2008 Faith and Bio-ethics |
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Sunday, February 10, 2008, 10–10:50 am Faith and Bio-ethics a conversation on stem cell research with filmmaker Maria Finitzo and leading bioethicist Cynthia B. Cohen
Finitzo discusses her new documentary, Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita. “What is the responsibility of scientists when they’re doing this research?” she asks rhetorically, citing the controversies that surround the research. In making her film, she found that the media do not address the topic of stem cell research adequately, either in range or depth. While ethical questions about human embryos are covered by reporters, related aspects of social justice are less frequently aired.
“The hope is that they can transplant [stem cells] into sick people,” Cohen summarizes. A Parkinson’s disease patient, for example, might ultimately receive stem cells to halt the progress of the disease. Cohen discusses recent and older theological views of the sanctity of life, and suggests essential differences between an embryo in a laboratory and a fetus inside a woman’s body. Finitzo’s film, recently premiered at the Cathedral, explores several viewpoints about stem cell research. The film profiles Dr. Jack Kessler, head of neurology at Northwestern University, who changed the focus of his laboratory research after his daughter’s spine was injured in a catastrophic accident. In the film, paralyzed patients discuss their hopes that stem cell research might yield a cure, and also the limitations of hope. 
About the Guests
Director/producer Maria Finitzo has been an award-winning
filmmaker for 25 years. She has directed and produced projects for
network television, public broadcasting and the cable market. Her work
as a filmmaker has taken her from the Galapagos Islands to Russia and
has involved subjects ranging from the command and control of nuclear
weapons to the psychology of adolescent girls. She produced and directed
No Direction Home, a short film produced in conjunction with Public
Policy Productions, about young people aging out of foster care. Her
most well known film, 5 GIRLS, is a feature-length documentary that
delves into the hearts and minds of five remarkable young women. The
film was a special presentation of P.O.V. and premiered on national
public television in the fall of 2001.A long-time associate of the documentary company Kartemquin Films, Finitzo has also been a producer and writer for the PBS science series The New Explorers. Under the banner of her own production company, she produced and directed a variety of educational and broadcast programs including Whales, an episode of the National Audubon Society’s Audubon’s Animal Adventures, a children’s nature series for the Disney Channel. Finitzo also directed and produced a two-part special, On the Brink…Doomsday, for the Learning Channel and Towers Productions. She is currently pursuing her MFA at Northwestern University and developing her next project. 
Cynthia B. Cohen is a philosopher, lawyer, and
Senior Research Fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown
University. She has written and spoken on the ethics of conducting stem
cell research, human cloning, the creation of human-nonhuman chimeras,
the new reproductive technologies, end-of-life issues, assisted suicide
and euthanasia, and religion and bioethics. Her most recent book is
Renewing the Stuff of Life: Stem Cells, Ethics, and Public Policy
(Oxford University Press, 2007). Dr. Cohen also is a member of the
Canadian Stem Cell Oversight Committee and a fellow of the Hastings
Center in New York.
Cynthia B. Cohen is a philosopher and lawyer who is a Senior Research Fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She has written and spoken on the ethics of conducting stem cell research, human cloning, the creation of human-nonhuman chimeras, the new reproductive technologies, end-of-life issues, assisted suicide and euthanasia, and religion and bioethics. Her publications include eight books that she has authored or edited and over 200 articles on ethical issues that arise at the beginning and end of life and quite a few in between. A new book of hers, Renewing the Stuff of Life: Ethics and Stem Cell Research was published by Oxford University Press in June 2007. Articles authored or co-authored by Cynthia Cohen related to bioethics and stem cell research:
(also listed in Cathedral worship service leaflets) For more information, please contact Deryl Davis at (202) 537-6382 or e-mail ddavis@cathedral.org. |
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Two guests—filmmaker Maria Finitzo and bioethicist Cynthia B.
Cohen—join Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd to talk about
“Faith and Bioethics.” 
Cohen, author of Renewing the Stuff of Life: Stem Cells, Ethics, and
Public Policy, gives a brief primer about adult, fetal, and embryonic
human stem cells. She also reports that some 500,000 frozen embryos are
stored in laboratories in the United States today. Most were produced
through in vitro fertilization. Because only a limited number of
fertilized embryos are transferred into patients, the remaining embryos
are frozen four or five days into their development. Although adoption
of stem cells has been encouraged, Cohen speculates that a supply so
large would not likely be used in this way. She perceives a need for
standards to be developed to guide the various stem cell research
efforts that are taking place.