Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

I know, there are a million crazy things happening in the world right now, so I probably shouldn’t bring another one to your attention. I can’t help myself, though, because it is both deeply cool and deeply disturbing at the same time.

You know all about DNA, I’m sure. Hard not to with all the CSI/NCIS type shows talking about it regularly. You probably also know that it is illegal to experiment on humans. Frankly, after Frankenstein, that should be a no brainer, but they made several laws about it just in case anyone was confused.

Now, here’s the cool-but-scary thing: they are on the verge of producing synthetic human DNA. Not just a gene or two, but the whole bloody instruction manual.

On the cool side, we can now Xerox ourselves, which as every person that has ever been to an office party knows is the Holy Grail of stuff to do. No doubt this will lead to major advances in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, MS, and other serious illnesses. We can study not only what genes are linked to each other, but how they affect each other in a real system. So there is some cause for rejoicing.

On the other hand, we are on the verge of creating a synthetic version of ourselves. A version that will no doubt be subject to numerous patents.

An owned version of humanity.

Just let that sink in for a minute.

I have seen no evidence at this moment that suggests anyone has a current plan to do the obvious and actually grow this DNA into a living person. But it wouldn’t be that difficult, assuming one could fabricate the synthetic DNA in the first place. A simple cloning process, really, and we suddenly have a major ethical dilemma on our hands.

One that I had hoped we had finally solved.

But mankind seems to really want to have some marginalized part of society that the rest of the world can feel they are above. Gypsies, Jews, the Irish, people of color, Catholics, Gays. For whatever reason, each of these groups has felt that marginalization in a most painful way. Worldwide, there are indicators of this desire for stratification, like rank in a wolf pack writ on the entire population. The Hindu caste system, the royalty/nobility systems of Europe, even the trending/not trending modern categories ubiquitous on the Web. We feel the need to divide people into us and not us, though in truth there is little enough to divide us.

So what exactly is mankind going to do with a synthetic version of itself? One that is patented, owned, and owes its creators not only its life and upkeep, but the very stuff of which it is made?

Are we going to accept them as brothers, or develop some test to distinguish between them and ‘real’ humans? Are we going to grant them the same rights and privileges as we enjoy, or find a way to keep them subservient?

And what about the usual controls?

Life created in the lab is usually given some sort of weakness so that in the event it escapes the laboratory setting, it won’t cause an environmental disaster. When you are working with a virulent thing like Smallpox, then rendering it sterile, or short-lived, or unable to survive without a supplemental amino acid is a pretty smart thing.

If instead we are talking about a human being, then the same protocols make me nauseous.

Just a little food for thought this Friday.

Cheers,

Michelle