Scotch eggs with a difference: Edinburgh Film Festival on the ethics of cloning 21/02/06. By Michael Clark A report on 'Ethics of Cloning' – the first Biomedical Ethics Film Festival - held at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh on 11–13 November 2005 as part of European Science Week.

Multiple choices

"No man hath quickened his own soul", says the Psalmist (Psalm 22, v. 30), and so long as full human reproductive cloning remains practically impossible and ethically unacceptable, as well as unlawful in most developed countries, the question as to what kind of 'soul' a human clone might have remains a purely theological one.

But suppose that, in the near future, reproductive cloning by cell nuclear transfer were to become a safe and reliable procedure. Would the current ethical and legal barriers to medical experimentation with human reproductive cloning remain in force? If not, what would such a world be like? And what ethical principles should govern the relations between human beings and human clones?

One of the great strengths of film, especially fiction film, is its ability to visualise future scenarios of this kind. The first Biomedical Ethics Film Festival on the theme of the 'Ethics of Cloning', held at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh during the weekend of 11–13 November 2005 as part of European Science Week, sought to address some of these questions through the media of documentary and fiction film and television programmes, followed by expert discussions and public debates.

The brainchild of Dr Calum MacKellar, biochemist, film buff and Director of Research at the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, the Festival was largely funded by a Wellcome Trust Public Engagement People Award. It was co-organised by Siona Wood and Beverley Nicolson of the Edinburgh Filmhouse with the support of the University of Edinburgh ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum and the Edinburgh and South-East Scotland Branch of the British Association.

Though not quite the first event of its kind anywhere, this was certainly the first film festival on a biomedical-ethical theme to be held in the UK. To judge from the size of the audiences, at least for the feature film screenings, and the liveliness of some of the post-screening debates, the organisers seem to have discovered an effective and entertaining way of interesting a broad lay audience in some of the most important biomedical innovations likely to affect our senses of personal identity, agency and autonomy in the not-too-distant future.

Focus on cloning

The festival programme extended over three consecutive afternoons and evenings. Screenings of major feature films alternated with broadcast television documentaries, short films and animations on the principles, methods, history and current state of reproductive cloning technology.

Under the broad heading 'Ethics of Cloning', each of the three days was devoted to a different aspect of cloning – technology on the first day, human cloning and personal identity on the second, and the risks and possible benefits of human cloning on the third. Each major feature film and each pair of television documentaries or short films was followed by an expert panel discussion and public debate, with different panels and chairs on all three days.

The fiction films screened were an astute mixture of recent Hollywood blockbusters such as 'The Sixth Day' (2000), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and 'The Island' (2005), featuring Scottish superstar Ewan McGregor, and vintage science fiction movies such as 'The Boys from Brazil' (1978). There was also a rare British screening for the poignant and often moving, though technically flawed, German drama 'Blueprint' (2003), starring Franka Potente [Lola of 'Run Lola Run' (2001)] as a world-famous concert pianist with multiple sclerosis, who has herself cloned in an attempt to cheat genetic illness and perpetuate her talent.

Film review: The Sixth Day

There was even knockabout comedy, in the form of the zany Harold Ramis sci-fi comedy 'Multiplicity' (1996), starring a chaotically cloned Michael Keaton. Several of the factual programmes screened, such as the BBC Horizon programme 'Dawn of the Clone' Age (2001), had particular relevance insofar as they featured major scientific developments that had taken place in and around Edinburgh itself, notably at the Roslin Institute.

Panels

The panels included a number of locally based Wellcome Trust-funded stem cell researchers, such as Drs Neville Cobbe and Ruth Bancewicz of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh. Other panel members, including Dr Hugh McClachlan of Glasgow Caledonian University and Dr John Deighan of the Scottish Roman Catholic Parliamentary Office, Glasgow, were simultaneously debating the ethics of human cloning in the Scottish newspapers and television.¹

Although there was a natural preponderance of Scottish-based biomedical and social scientists, lawyers and ethicists, several panel members – including Jonathan Hall, writer of 'Learning to Love the Grey' (1999/2000) and Dr Kate O'Riordan of CESAGen, the ESRC Centre for the Study of Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics at the University of Lancaster - were primarily concerned either with artistic and cultural responses to the 'new genetics' and genomics or with exploring more personal and emotional dimensions of genetics and cloning. Indeed, one of the most attractive features of the festival was its success in facilitating all kinds of spontaneous dialogue and lively interactions between practitioners in the arts, literature, law and ethics, as well as biomedical and social scientists.

For the future

In Edinburgh at least there seems to be a significant overlap between the scientifically well-informed and the intelligent film-going publics, and the festival organisers were able to take full advantage of this to engage the wider film-going public with controversial developments in biomedical science. The festival certainly vindicated Dr MacKellar's belief that fiction films and television documentaries could complement each other effectively both in stimulating public engagement and in helping to provide the necessary factual basis for informed debate about human cloning – and that a mixture of science fact and science fiction need not detract from the educational value of such an event.

A second Biomedical Ethics Film Festival, again with Wellcome Trust funding, on the themes of organ transplantation, organ trafficking and xeno-transplantation, is being planned for November 2006 at the same venue. Inevitably, the first festival set the organisers on a steep learning curve and presented them with many new challenges. However, if they can build on the experience of the first festival to deliver an equally interesting programme of films and debates and attract another diverse and lively audience, then the second festival may prove to be an even more effective means of public engagement than the first.

Michael Clark is a research associate of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London, and a freelance writer on medical and scientific film and television.

Note

1 See especially:

McLachlan HV. Ignore The Boys from Brazil – say Yes to human cloning. The Scotsman (05/11/05).
Haldane J. Dangers and damages that would come along with human cloning. The Scotsman (12/11/05).
McLachlan HV. Poor reasons for making human cloning illegal. (A reply to Haldane's article above.) The Scotsman (26/11/05).

Also see further letters on this subject in The Scotsman (11, 12 and 14/11/05).