Educational Media Reviews Online

When one reads the description, you feel you are about to view a video about the visible human project. Instead, what you get is a video that provides a diverse and realistic view of the life and death of John Paul Jernigan, known today as the “Visible Man”.

Through interviews with family members, the prison chaplain, law enforcement and legal professionals, the viewer gets a feel for who Jernigan was and how he ended up on death row. The people interviewed are as varied as their opinions and views. Topics discussed included the death penalty, the use of drugs, and the effect of a child’s upbringing on their adult life.

Although the percentage of the film dealing with the actual project is small, the viewer gets an idea of the project, the difficulties encountered and a brief demonstration of the end product. There could have been a better explanation of the actual scanning process and less emphasis on the cutting and planing of the body.

The strength of the film is that it shows us that behind the digitally created images was an actual human being. In the age of technology and computers, we sometimes forget that everything is not just a computer creation. Through exposing us to Jernigans life, we can relate the human to the digital. Another strength of the film is that it showcases what science and technology can accomplish, even when there are ethical and social issues related to the process.

The major weakness of the film is the use of German text throughout the film. Peoples titles, the beginning and ending credits, and information provided at the end of the film were presented in German text. If the viewer is not fluent in German, the information presented is useless. Another weakness of the film is that it plays like a narrative on Jernigans life instead of an exploration of the project. Perhaps a different video case description could have been written to more accurately reflect the scope the video.

The video could be in college libraries which collect materials dealing with ethics and science in general although it is not recommended.

Further information on the Visible Human Project can be found at the National Library of Medicine at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html.