Screening of Coma with author Robin Cook

As part of its Science on Screen series, the Coolidge Corner Theatre will be showing the film Coma (1978) on Monday, September 21st at 7pm. Author Robin Cook will give an introduction, discussing medical and ethical issues in the film, which was directed by fellow physician-author Michael Crichton.

A young surgical resident unearths a chilling conspiracy in this intense medical thriller based on Robin Cook’s best-selling novel. When her best friend falls into a coma after a routine operation at Boston Memorial Hospital, Dr. Susan Wheeler (Geneviève Bujold) does some digging. Upon learning that many other patients, all young and relatively healthy, have met the same fate, she becomes obsessed with finding answers. Her probing only antagonizes her superiors and alienates her boyfriend, Dr. Mark Bellows (Michael Bellows), who dismisses her suspicions of foul play. The tension builds as Dr. Wheeler’s investigation leads her to a mysterious experimental facility where she witnesses comatose bodies suspended on wires in a computer-controlled environment — and discovers the chilling truth about why they are there.

I haven’t read Coma, but I’d be curious to see how the medical aspects of the film stand up after >30 years. Will it be hopelessly out of date? For more on medical/research ethics, check out the plentiful discussions in the blogosphere, or look into readings from a course on medical/research ethics.

Admission is $9.75 general / $7.75 seniors, students and Museum of Science Members.

Related posts:

1. Agresti talk on drop-based microfluidic screening
2. Dec 1st CIMIT Forum: Life Science Innovation
3. Dec 3rd: The Social Responsibility of the Scientist
4. A new era for DIY science