|
"My mother was a test-tube, my father was a knife."
-Marjorie "Friday" Baldwin, Friday, Robert A. Heinlein
My principal objections to the artificial creation of Human life are much the same as Heinlein expressed in the above-mentioned work.
In the world of "Friday," such work is long completed. Human beings, known as "Artificial Persons" or "APs" in popular slang, are grown in laboratories and raised in creche-style group homes, trained to be essentially social slaves: doing the jobs that nobody else wants. APs are the prostitutes, high-risk combat operatives, the drudges and the pariahs of this world. Conveniently, most of the world's major religions mostly do not assign APs a soul or moral free agency, and so they are subject not only to legal discrimination of every kind, but also to social ostracism, abuse, and murder. The title character is herself an AP, and the book deals in great depth with the problems such a system creates. For Friday herself, the problems are legion:
1: How to find love in a society which believes that APs are incapable of love.
2: How to find/keep a job in a society in which APs are typically prevented from entering most occupations.
3: How to maintain relationships with "normal" humans in a society in which a person's status as an AP automatically consigns them to the lowest social roles and in which such status is regarded as physically, spiritually, and mentally "tainted."
4: How to interface with the world at large, and humans in general, when unsure if she even -is- human, despite the assurance of multiple very intelligent people who mean a great deal to her that she is "as human as Mother Eve." Friday's search for her own humanity, both experienced for herself and seen reflected in the eyes of others, is a marvelous thing to read. But I can only imagine the horror such emotions could inflict upon someone perhaps less well-prepared for emotional trauma than a genetically-engineered superspy with an affection for sarcasm and cats.
As much of a crush as I had on Friday when I was younger, I don't wish to see the genetic and eugenic horrorshow required to bring her into being.
I have a great deal of trouble imagining a world in which these would not be huge problems. Additionally, not being "real" humans, "APs" could easily end up a new slave class, just as Heinlein describes; especially if the technology is pioneered by a repressive State. North Korea's infamous "Total Control Zone" springs to mind as the kind of place where APs are most likely to show up first, if they haven't already. Likewise, this carries additional geneto-ethical risks: what's to stop North Korea or some equally-demented State from creating genetically pre-determined classes of people? I hate to get all Huxley on this debate, but once that genie is out of the bottle there's no telling who's wishes it'll grant.
I vote no.
On the other hand: marrying hot people from other cultures and other parts of the world? Damned fine idea. Genetic diversity = good.
|