Discussions in Bioethics: Family Tree

One of a series of short, open-ended dramas designed to stimulate discussion of values and ethics in relation to modern medical technology. This film examines the moral questions surrounding the issue of compulsory sterilization. When a child-beater and single mother of three is admitted to hospital in need of abdominal surgery, the surgeon is sorely tempted to perform a tubal ligation without the patient's consent, thus preventing the birth of "new victims."