When the doctor presents the project to
potential buyers, he lies and says that they are in vegetative states, so they
never reach consciousness, they don’t feel anything, they don’t suffer. The
doctor wants them to think that they are products which don’t ever think or reach consciousness so they won’t feel bad about it. As
soon as the doctors describes the clones, a public relations guy comes in and
tells them that it’s the best and smartest investment they will ever make and that
they will live 60-70 years longer. Like, in Oryx and Crake, it is not only
about the science but also the business side of it. At the end of the movie,
the main character meets his sponsor, the one who had him made, to tell him the
truth about the clones. The doctor wants to kill the clone because he is a
threat, but since the sponsor and the clone look exactly alike he doesn’t know
which one is the clone. This is a major theme in Oryx and Crake, at some point,
they don’t know what is real and fake anymore.
Description of the clones in the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDzcwvdu0GY
It seems that all the creations in Oryx and
Crake are very futuristic and a little far-fetched, but after a bit of
research, we realize that some of their inventions already exist nowadays. I
can’t help but wonder if we have crossed some sort of line here. Will our world ever
resemble what we see in science fiction? If you had the opportunity to create a
clone of yourself, like people are doing in this movie, would you do it?
That sounds like a pretty interesting movie.
ReplyDeleteIts sad to see how people are manipulated with apparent lies to doing such cruel things that would benefit them and the people conducting the business. I don't think its a good idea to create a clone or even any other thing for the sole purpose of just benefiting your own health and prolonging your life.
I like the connection you made here. I do however disagree with your idea that they don't know what's real and fake any more (in Oryx and Crake).
ReplyDeleteI actually discussed the topic with one of my friends and it was interesting to see the number of points to be made on both sides of the argument of "cloning to harvest organs". It would however be much better to simply clone the organ instead of the whole person.
I've always wondered how fun it would be to have a clone. At first sure you would be all excited to have something that looks exactly like you, something that could act as a brother or sister, except that it's not. It's unnatural to have a clone. I completely agree with you on the fact that people in the story don't know what's fake or real anymore. They don't know if the diseases are real, since they can be made and distributed whenever and wherever, like with the incident with the BlyssPluss pill, and at one point Jimmy didn't even know if his mother's execution was real either. In the world of "Oryx and Crake" anything can be faked. Good post!
ReplyDeletepersonally I think that growing a clone simply to harvest its organs is murder, even if the embryo is not completely developed. In the movie people made their own clone to use their organs and live longer, but what I think is that if in real life we use cloned organs to increase life expectancy, the world will soon be overpopulated and poverty will increase dramatically. So no matter what, we can't really reach immortality.
ReplyDeleteYes I also believe that cloning a human being to grow organs is not right. People are told that their clones will never reach consciousness but it is false. The doctor tried to remove the part of the brain that makes them human but he clearly failed since the clones were able to think, question, feel emotions etc.. I think it is very much like killing a human being for his organs. Alhamuddin, it is true that cloning organs would result in overpopulation; I hadn't thought about that. Evan, I agree that cloning the organ instead of the whole person would be much better.
ReplyDelete