From errors in scientific procedures that cause widespread harm to entanglements that undermine patients’ health rights, Netflix gives a good account of it. Medical and scientific errors are a terrifying legal, cultural, and moral area. Not only because they involve the way science can be used as a tool to cause harm, violate rights, and even kill. But also because they often come as a surprise. because of their reach and the severity over the decades they typically leave behind.
Therefore, investigating such cases, whether by the police or journalists, is usually a way to prevent similar circumstances from happening again. Or at least to prevent them from going unnoticed by the scientific community and the public at large. An idea that the documentary world tries to show through productions that detail increasingly serious, compromising circumstances. Which allows it to spread, explaining the seriousness of scenarios that are not in the public domain, and sometimes to help victims of such events gain access to justice.
To illustrate the point, we leave you with five terrifying science documentaries you can find on Netflix right now. From the so-called fertility fraud that took place in several countries with the strangest consequences, to the pharmacopoeia becoming a risky field. All to illustrate what happens when science becomes a double-edged sword for both patients and the experts who depend on it to carry it out. One of the most difficult points that these productions demonstrate in their arguments.
Man 1000 children
This three-chapter miniseries tells the story of what happened in 2007 and the following years, when serial sperm donation became a public health issue in the Netherlands. At the beginning of the first decade of the millennium, Jonathan Jacob Meyer became a frequent participant in assisted reproduction. But what began as a seemingly selfless collaboration eventually turned into in a horrific case of abuse of fertilization and assisted conception resources.
The reason? Meyer exploited a loophole in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe and Africa to donate his sperm indiscriminately. With no central controls in place to protect families or prevent Meyer from being involved in multiple conceptions at once, the number of children conceived with his sperm increased. So early, The number of direct descendants born as a result of the procedures in which he participated exceeded a hundred.
To date, more than 600 verified children have been conceived from Meyer’s sperm. There are fears that the figure is much higher. Which has raised real concerns about the dangers of incest or endogamy. The documentary tells not only the parents’ experiences, but also about the general attempts to stop Meyer and his dangerous coercion.
Our father
Another documentary that touches on the subject of so-called birth fraud is Our fatherdirected by Lucy Jourdan. The production takes a close look at the case of Donald Kline, a fertility doctor who, in the 1970s and 1980s, He used his own sperm to impregnate a group of patients.
He runs the entire clinic in Indiana (USA). The immediate consequence of this was the conception of at least 50 children genetically related to each other. without the parents knowing about the very serious situation.
The point that Jacoba Ballard made when she took a DNA test, in which she discovered that she had shared genetic information with half a dozen people. It set off a horrific investigation that exposed Cline’s abuses and, especially, their extent. The documentary follows Jacoba and her half-siblings’ efforts to get the doctor exemplary punishment. In addition, public recognition of its abuses and biased use of medical procedures.
Food Poisoning: The Harsh Truth About Our Food
Directed by Stephanie Sochtig, this Netflix production examines the sudden rise in food-related poisonings and fatal illnesses in North America. From atypical reactions to meat, chicken or pork to toxic outbreaks caused by everyday foods like peanuts.
The truth is that the industry is interested in and is delving into the wave of unexplained situations related to the handling of food products and their subsequent sale. Which is led by a group of researchers, to get to the bottom of what’s really going on with the American food supply system.
The answer could not have been more terrifying. Food Poisoning: The Harsh Truth About Our Food This is not only evidence of serious errors in hygiene and food packaging. A particularly dangerous circumstance causing damage is illness and death of 48 million people every year in the country.
Take care of Maya
Maya Kowalski was 10 years old when her parents took her to the hospital for a series of debilitating symptoms caused by complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). The result was a series of medical and administrative errors. who eventually kidnapped the girl and turned her over to the American health care justice system.
Much worse, resulting in her mother Beata being charged with abuse and the hospital losing the family’s legal custody of the girl. Caring for Maja is a horrifying portrait of how misdiagnosis and medical errors can lead to complex criminal consequences. Moreover, it harms not only the families involved, but especially the children they insist on.
Almost a decade later, after a family suicide made the whole process even more painful, Maya Kowalski returned home to her family. What remained was a brutal medical procedure that kept her bedridden for years and separated her from her parents, causing her considerable suffering. Netflix’s Take Care of Maya takes a detailed look at all of its serious implications.
Take your pills
Over the past decade, the drug crisis in the United States has become increasingly serious. This has led to various media outlets and investigations focusing on the effects of some seemingly harmless drugs. This is the case Adderallwhich promises not only to improve the physical and mental processes of the patient who uses it. Also offer a new level of productivity. All of the above in a hyper-competitive world that the benefit of a drug can be the deciding factor between success and failure.
But of course there is a dark side to such things. And that is what this documentary explores, showing the dangers of normalizing the consumption of a drug with similar properties without taking into account its side effects. Which forces the program to rethink how the current pharmacopoeia works, This is a risk associated with indiscriminate access and consumption that can have a wide range of consequences. In 2022, a documentary film from Netflix there was a sequel Take the pills: Xanaxwho delved into the dark places of use of the famous tranquilizer.
Source: Hiper Textual
