Just saw a brilliant movie with great cast and very interesting story. Essentially, advances in cloning have led to the creation of the Merrick Institute, a place where the rich and famous can have their clones created. The clients are told that their clones are lifeless organ factories without soul, emotion, consciousness and love. They are the means for the clients to cheat death. Unbeknownst to them, these clones have actually been awakened because only living, conscious souls can give organs that last beyond three years. So in this underground make-believe world shielded from the outside by a hologram wall, these clones live and work and wait for the day they will be given the chance to go to "The Island." The Island, as they are told, is the last living paradise that is free of pathogen contamination, which explains why they are forced to live within the well guarded confines. Funny how the guards always point their guns in, when supposedly it is what comes from outside that is to be feared! Contact between the sexes is strictly forbidden, as love and lust can most certainly give rise to curiosity and awareness and unsettled emotions. Those individual fluctuations could lead to large scale chaos and ruin the plans of Dr. Merrick, the man behind it all. Such hubris! It is precisely the curiosity of one Lincoln Six Echo, who with the help of his companion Jordan Two Delta, that leads to the final destruction of this facility and truth for all the clones.
I have to say, this movie got me thinking. The cloning issue is a path that requires patience, caution, and compassion. I am coming to the conviction that a cloned life is as valuable as the original. I have to admit, I did not know what to think about clones before. Think about it, single cell organisms reproduce asexually by a process that is essentially cloning. In some sense, from an evolutionary point of view, we can argue that evolution has led us to progress to such a state that we may be able to perform large-scale cloning---that of multicell complex beings. This does not make the new life any less valuable than one obtained by sexual means, nor should we belittle the new method for attainment of life! Although I still need to think about this issue more deeply, isn't the continuation of life and our species, by whatever means, sexual, asexual, "natural" (which is only because sex is the one way we know how to reproduce thus far in our entire existence) or "unnatural," the most important issue of all? Continuing in this line of thought, one would argue that what IS wrong is using clones as organ factories, particularly in the fashion made so explicit by the movie. What this boils down to is murder. Of course now one can argue well perhaps this is just evolution for the rich and famous, you know they have means to live longer, while their clones are just part of the left behinds, a "species" meant to die out. That's why this argument gets more and more murky and sooner or later no one knows what to say, or everyone is saying anything. Basically I think to stay on the right track, we should keep just these as guidelines 1) do not kill another human life regardless of the means they were created, and by human obviously anything that fits our genetics DNA etc is human 2) procreate!
This is certainly not the end of the story. I think dialogue and lots of thought needs to be put into the issue, and by no means should we stick to one belief and hold till the day we die. Science and communication combined leads to a clearing of the brushes, the lifting of the fog of war. And then, when we see more clearly, we must adjust our positions accordingly. But damn nice movie, to provoke so many thoughts and emotions within me (Scarlett Johansson is hoottt!!).
I have to say, this movie got me thinking. The cloning issue is a path that requires patience, caution, and compassion. I am coming to the conviction that a cloned life is as valuable as the original. I have to admit, I did not know what to think about clones before. Think about it, single cell organisms reproduce asexually by a process that is essentially cloning. In some sense, from an evolutionary point of view, we can argue that evolution has led us to progress to such a state that we may be able to perform large-scale cloning---that of multicell complex beings. This does not make the new life any less valuable than one obtained by sexual means, nor should we belittle the new method for attainment of life! Although I still need to think about this issue more deeply, isn't the continuation of life and our species, by whatever means, sexual, asexual, "natural" (which is only because sex is the one way we know how to reproduce thus far in our entire existence) or "unnatural," the most important issue of all? Continuing in this line of thought, one would argue that what IS wrong is using clones as organ factories, particularly in the fashion made so explicit by the movie. What this boils down to is murder. Of course now one can argue well perhaps this is just evolution for the rich and famous, you know they have means to live longer, while their clones are just part of the left behinds, a "species" meant to die out. That's why this argument gets more and more murky and sooner or later no one knows what to say, or everyone is saying anything. Basically I think to stay on the right track, we should keep just these as guidelines 1) do not kill another human life regardless of the means they were created, and by human obviously anything that fits our genetics DNA etc is human 2) procreate!
This is certainly not the end of the story. I think dialogue and lots of thought needs to be put into the issue, and by no means should we stick to one belief and hold till the day we die. Science and communication combined leads to a clearing of the brushes, the lifting of the fog of war. And then, when we see more clearly, we must adjust our positions accordingly. But damn nice movie, to provoke so many thoughts and emotions within me (Scarlett Johansson is hoottt!!).
Comments
Post a Comment