The Sexually-Desensitized Western World

A conversation with my friend Katie yesterday re-opened my eyes to the philosophical and ideological components of prime time tv. Its not that I don't know what Hollywood is up to, but I have been watching for entertainment purposes. I've been so lazy...wanting to sift through the bad to find some nugget of humor or goodness. In fact, I'm fully satisfied simply seeing Amy Pohler's goofy grin, but the second she starts talking, I have to turn on the filter. But now the monster is awakened.

The discussion with Katie entailed the influence of same-sex experimentation being communicated to young girls via Grey's Anatomy, a bit more subtle than what was portrayed this week on House. As girls and young women struggle with a lack of self-confidence while possessing a highly relational nature, they can easily be persuaded to experiment with what 2 adult women on Grey's are portrayed as trying for the first time. Acting like school girls who are completely clueless about the ways of the world, this story line replaces the usual confident/militant lesbian story line with a softer, more feminine version that seeks to remove the contrast between unnatural & inappropriate sexual relationships and those which are viewed to be healthy female relationships. Removing what little stigma that is left in our society toward same-sex relationships seems to be the goal of prime time television this season. But I should be fair; Grey's Anatomy, House, ER--these have never been shows that were meant to tap into our medical curiosity. These are meant to indulge our wildest sexual fantasies by portraying them as the norm of our society. They are accomplishing their goal, I fear, by desensitizing the youngest generations to any sense of right or wrong in the context of sexuality.

Prime Time Bioethics: The Myth of Hollywood Neutrality

The Return of Jezebel James
Boston Legal
House
Law & Order
CSI
Ugly Betty

The above is a short list, but represents some of the current work being done in Hollywood to say something about the issues hotly debated in bioethics today. If the popular culture can be swayed on the issues, the academics who agree with Hollywood have less need for precise, rational arguments their points and our elected representatives have less work to do--or a lot more, depending on which side they fall on the issues.

Egg harvesting is the latest topic to go mainstream, an attempt to bring the process into every day vernacular. While this has been more closely associated to surrogacy on many of these shows, another application is also embryonic stem cell research. Those of us on the side of human dignity have been drawing attention to the dangers of egg "donation," the problem of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome.

Religion is alive and well in Hollywood, and the sect that seems to be winning the culture war is the one that denies the inherent value of all life, the one that believes we can use people to meet the wants and whims of others, the one that treats the female reproductive system as a manufacturing plant. How they are winning the culture war is beyond me given their very low view of women.....perhaps one reason is the lack of basic logic taught in our public educational system.

Prime Time Bioethics: Euthanasia on Boston Legal

The indignity of suffering......euthanasia happens all the time under the guise of pain management.....these are the arguments declared as just reason for ending the life of a victim of Alzheimer's disease. But the actor/state's attorney helpfully insists that the request for morphine to put the patient "to sleep" is really an attempt to relieve the suffering of the patient's family.

Argued as a matter of constitutional privacy, physician assisted suicide is put forth as a safeguard to self-respect and human dignity because the patient in his current state of decline has no intrinsic value....his life is a misery, there is no sanctity in that.

"Whatever one believes about God.....some lives are taken far too late."

If this issue continues to be legislated in the courts, the right to put a qualitative rather than intrinsic value on human life and dignity will reside with someone else. Advocates of physician assisted suicide/euthanasia really believe that common sense will prevail and no one will really be a victim of these practices. But who will protect the person who is mentally deficient or physically challenged if the courts will not protect those who are most vulnerable now?

Primetime Bioethics: Surrogacy on Fox

Glorification of multiple sexual partners, mocking of Christianity, trivializing of relationships, comedic gynecological visits....these are a few ways Fox is participating in our culture's affair with unfettered sexuality and science. The show is The Return of Jezebel James and is about the lives of 2 sisters, one who has a career as an editor with Harper Collins children's book division and the other who seems to be wondering life aimlessly and unable to make the simplest of decisions, except the one to carry her sister's child. Sarah is the sister unable to have her own child, given the options only to adopt, hire a surrogate, etc. This is the first time in her life she's been confronted with any serious challenge to getting what she wants, so she is able to profit from her sister Coco's lack of focus and rent her womb.

We are way past the point of asking what's become of this world, we can only inquire as to how we, as caretakers of God's creation, can participate in the restoration of a view of humanity that respects the dignity inherent with being created in the image of God. Correcting society's view of human dignity is fundamental to addressing the particulars of society, whether the issues are as basic as our treatment of each other in our families, work, and other relationships, or the very serious bioethics issues of our time that violate human dignity to the extent of compromising life.

While television is indoctrinating the intellectually vulnerable about how to treat one another, those who hold a strong view of human dignity need to work hard to have as much impact on the people around them. This is a high spiritual calling that belongs to the Church.

Primetime Bioethics

The 25th anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision was "celebrated" this week by the networks via Boston Legal and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. On BL, the 'right to choose' on the basis of it being her body, was challenged by her male partner who insisted that she abort. An interesting consideration as our society considers father's rights. But is 'he' a father if the embryo isn't a human person?

Law & Order:SVU also challenged societies varied views on the moral status of the preborn in its portrayal of prolifers and our view of embryos. The plot detailed the theft of embryos from a clinic, orchestrated by prolifers, that were being cryopreserved. The embryos ended up dying and the prolifers charged-with theft...though they and the parents who lost their embryos wanted them charged with murder. Bottom line of this episode is that the law hasn't caught up with the truth that each of us ultimately recognize, life does begin at conception.
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