Flavio Paranhos

The use of movies as a tool for teaching ethics and bioethics has the virtue of drawing attention to several different issues, through an instrument of entertainment. With the help of the internet, one has access to a variety of interesting films, some of which are presented here. As it is common with movies, many of them are not original productions, and are based on another literary medium such as a play or a novel. That is the case of Death and the Maiden, An Enemy of the People and The Trial of God, which are originally plays, and A Clockwork Orange, which is a novel. Of the cases presented here, only Decalogue was originally intended as a movie. This only makes them even more intellectually rich, giving us the opportunity to discuss themes with global appeal such as Kantian versus utilitarian moral choices, free will, the divine beneficence, or even the role of a professor of ethics. The result is a very efficient way to engage the students’ attention, the first step towards a successful course of ethics.

From the year 2000, on a class of biological drugs, the anti-VEGF proved to be quite effective in the treatment of retinal diseases, which have in its pathophysiological mechanism an important vascular proliferation component that can lead to blindness. Two of these drugs, bevacizumab and ranibizumab, are quite similar and have the same efficacy and safety. They were developed by the same laboratory and are commercialized by two major pharmaceutical companies through an agreement made between them. However, there is a big difference in the price of the drugs. The aim of this article is to present the Bioethics of intervention as grounds for choosing the cheaper drug, even if forced to do so by regulatory entities.