Should a Baby Die?

A stark, unflinching traversal of early 20th-century bioethics, 'Should a Baby Die?' maneuvers through the harrowing corridors of medical responsibility and parental despair. The narrative centers on a physician, portrayed with a heavy, somber gravitas by Arthur Donaldson, who finds himself ensnared in an ontological nightmare when a child is born with severe physical and mental infirmities. Rather than a simple domestic drama, the plot serves as a celluloid polemic on the then-nascent eugenics movement, questioning whether a life of guaranteed suffering is a gift or a curse. Camille Dalberg delivers a visceral performance as the mother, her silent screams echoing through the grainy frames of 1916 as she grapples with the doctor’s hesitation to intervene with life-saving surgery. The screenplay by Charles Harris eschews the era's typical melodrama for a more cerebral, albeit controversial, investigation into the value of existence, pitting the sanctity of life against the utilitarian desire for a 'perfect' society.