A person who learns that they have cancer gets into a new hospital reality, and their life changes dramatically. In the work Wit, Director Mike Nichols shows how critical ethical issues are to terminally ill patients. It shows the sufferers’ struggle from a moral point of view and the doctors’ attitude, who are more absorbed in science. The film describes the experimental treatment of ovarian cancer with metastases, showing the situation from three sides, the patient’s feelings, the doctors who need to experiment, and a caring nurse.
The primary film message is to rethink life in the eyes of the principal character. She understands her illness and agrees to undergo an eight-step treatment. The doctor immediately warns her it will be difficult, but she must not stop and be strong. The central character is Professor of English literature Vivien Bering. She devoted her entire life to science, therefore now she has no family or friends, which adds drama to the picture.
Lying on a hospital bed without strength, she is amazed by the medical staff’s attitude, who perceive the patient not as a person but as an object of research. To cope with her feelings, she is constantly transported to various past moments and shows pleasant memories starting from childhood. One of her fantasies is about the age of 6, where she chooses a book and asks her father, “what is napping?” and he answers, “to fall asleep”. Then the heroine realized that her complete life would be connected with words. She is a tough person who did not possess a sense of sympathy and empathy until she was admitted to the hospital.
Vivienne Bering tries her best to be strong and calmly treats what is happening. However, she finds herself in very humiliating situations that could have been avoided. One of these circumstances is the examination of her former student. The doctor asks awkward questions and then examines the tumor from the inside. During the investigation, he continues to talk about the professors’ courses to enter medical school.
Such behavior is unethical, and the doctor himself understands it, but he behaves strangely, putting both himself and the patient in an uncomfortable position. After the inspection, Vivienne tells the viewer that she has updated the information in her head about what is the most humiliating thing in life. Every day she felt worse, both physically and mentally, but the doctors did not stop and continued their experiment.
Doctors need to reach their goal and experiment with a new treatments; therefore, they do not consider the human factor. Jason’s attending physician shows a complete lack of ethics, and he is only focused on disease research and treatment (Rosenthal, 2018). As mentioned earlier, he inspects and creates the most humiliating situation with his stories. Moreover, the doctor prescribes a lot of repeated tests at the most inopportune moment.
It is seen when Vivien is immersed in lecture memories, and a nurse comes in, who forces her to proceed to the analysis for a second analysis on the doctor’s instructions. The patient resists because she seeks the strength to continue fighting, remembering her lectures on poetry. For her, the only salvation is her mind with something sublime. The patient goes through a lot of examinations and tests, and every time repeats the last name. Doctors behave like they are just doing the job like it is just a mechanical process, but not like working with a living person.
All the tests and procedures are carried out in the complete absence of the human factor. Although doctors call the patient “Dr. Bering”, they show respect for the patient’s past life. It may be unethical, because at the moment, Vivien is a patient, and it can be doubly unpleasant for her to remember what the disease has deprived her. Doctors at the procedures remain apathetic and sometimes even rude. For example, a patient goes for an X-ray procedure, and at this moment, her chair disappears.
The doctor answers with a dissatisfied look that ” I will have to look for it now.” He does not think about the patient’s feelings and could not roll her chair since she was on the procedure. Nevertheless, the specialist expresses dissatisfaction that he will have to do additional work because the chair has disappeared somewhere. At the end of the film, the patient dies, and Dr. Jason calls the resuscitation team, although Vivien signed papers stating that if the heart stops, she refuses resuscitation. The attending physician does everything to complete his research and ignores that he is working with an alive person.
The only character who cares about Vivien like a personality is nurse Susie. According to McAllister et al. nurse is well-intentioned but somewhat inadequate (2016). In the beginning, she is not lovely while helping the doctors and the patient similarly to others. The nurse does not respond to the patient’s protests when necessary to take her to the next analysis. She listens to Vivien and tries to convince her humanly, but duties are in the first place. The closer to the end, the more empathy shows Susie. When Vivien is writhing in pain, the nurse suggests that she install an IV with painkillers. It means the patient can adjust the dose herself. Doctors, seeing this situation, say to inject another anesthetic every hour since Susie’s decision can negatively affect the experiment.
Susie, by empathy and support, becomes the only friend of the central character. As mentioned earlier, Vivien had no friends or family; the only thing that helped her withstand was her mind and education. However, a person needs the support of another since people are social beings. Susie calmly responds to Vivienne’s call at 4 a.m., brings her ice cream, and talks about options for action after a cardiac arrest. She tries to support and shows respect to the professor, even though she did not attend her lectures. Vivien takes the sister’s gestures of ice cream and conversation with a bit of irony. It is a reaction of moral defense since the patient no longer hopes for a miracle.
At the end of the film, Susie stayed after her work duties to smear Dr. Bering’s hands with cream. The gesture was not necessary, and the patient was unconscious, but Susie wanted to take care. Additionally, she stops the resuscitation team and does not allow the doctors to continue their work. Susie acts like the only character with ethical behavior and shows good intentions.
Vivian goes through chemotherapy and many additional examinations and tests to investigate a new experimental treatment while simultaneously encountering an insensitive doctor’s attitude and the nurse’s support. She comments about everything that happens with monologues for the viewer and tries to be strong, for which she constantly plunges into memories. Doctors do not show any feelings and treat the patient like they are working mechanically, and Dr. Jason is more interested in the study than the person. Nurse Susie is the only one who cares and tries to ease Vivian’s suffering on a human level. The film shows the reverse side of life, once on which it is better to choose death.
References
McAllister, M., Levett-Jones, T., Petrini, M. A., & Lasater, K. (2016). The viewing room: A lens for developing ethical comportment. Nurse Education in Practice, 16(1), 119–124. Web.
Rosenthal, M. S. (2018). If i were restricted to one film: Wit (2001). Clinical Ethics on Film, 3–25. Web.