January 8th, 2008
Can a no-star movie move the stem cell debate?
An Indian-born doctor is trying to move the stem cell debate using a movie without stars.
Hope, now in post-production, was written by Shelley Chawla, 42, who now lives in Topeka. His father, L.S. Chawla, was once vice-chancellor of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences in Punjab.
A trailer for the movie is now on its Web site. It’s not an Oscar threat, with an obvious plot, preachy tone, and limited production values, caused by its limited budget.
The lead is an unknown named J. Robert Paisley, playing a Congressman known for opposing research whose son is hurt in a car wreck and finds stem cell work in India is his only hope for a cure.
The whole thing is far-fetched, given that India is not now offering paralysis cures, using stem cells or anything else. It was the hope for such cures which animated the late Christopher Reeve until his death in 2004.
The Indian view on the ethics of stem cell research is at odds with the American view, which remains in control of American policy, holding that the use of embryos in such research constitutes murder.
The question is, will a bad, low-budget movie do anything to change this, or could it even be counter-productive, failing to draw an audience and thus causing politicians to feel there is no passion on behalf of reform?
I don’t know the answer to that question. I do know that whenever the subject is broached here, most of those who write in oppose such research, often very passionately.
Dr. Chawla is trying to ask those people, if your life were on the line, or your child’s, would you die, or let them die, rather than support research you consider unethical?
The movie may disappear quickly, but the question will not go away.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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