Do they think the warnings of every sci-fi book and film is a "how to" guide? 👇
Yes, this MIT op-ed is discussing how we could grow "bodyoids" to help us "revolutionize medicine."
If only there were sci-fi plots that have warned us for decades about what type of hell we will unleash by going down that path!
[Sarcasm intended]
Recent advances in biotechnology now provide a pathway to producing living human bodies without the neural components that allow us to think, be aware, or feel pain. Many will find this possibility disturbing, but if researchers and policymakers can find a way to pull these technologies together, we may one day be able to create 'spare' bodies, both human and nonhuman.
Someone send the writers of this op-ed a copy of the 2005 movie The Island starring Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johansson. Consider this clip where cloned humans are used as surrogates to provide children and organs for wealthy clients.
Yeah, we're talking end-game scientific depravity here.
These could revolutionize medical research and drug development, greatly reducing the need for animal testing, rescuing many people from organ transplant lists, and allowing us to produce more effective drugs and treatments. All without crossing most people's ethical lines.
I'm not concerned about "most people's ethical lines."
I'm concerned about what God has to say, and I think creating "bodyoids" to harvest for medical research crosses the "Thou shalt not kill" threshold that violates God's image.
Pluripotent stem cells, one of the earliest cell types to form during development, can give rise to every type of cell in the adult body. Recently, researchers have used these stem cells to create structures that seem to mimic the early development of actual human embryos. At the same time, artificial uterus technology is rapidly advancing, and other pathways may be opening to allow for the development of fetuses outside of the body.
Now we're crossing into The Matrix territory!
It could even be possible to generate organs directly from a patient's own cells, essentially cloning someone's biological material to ensure that transplanted tissues are a perfect immunological match and thus eliminating the need for lifelong immunosuppression.
This was the concept behind The Island, or 1979's Parts: The Clonus Horror, or other books and films that have explored this theme.
How do you know that such medical "breakthroughs" will not cross absolutely disgusting moral lines? Given human nature, can you not be assured that those moral lines will be crossed almost immediately and to utterly destructive ends?
As we proceed, the ethical and social issues are at least as important as the scientific ones. Just because something can be done does not mean it should be done.
Yes, please, if you won't listen to God Almighty, listen to Jurassic Park!
Caution is warranted, but so is bold vision; the opportunity is too important to ignore.
NO.
I don't want The Island, I don't want The Matrix, and I don't want Duncan from Dune. I certainly don't want galactic harvesting schemes of Jupiter Ascending or the clone armies of Emperor Palpatine. Stop trying to create the Un-man.
Someone call the moms of these knuckleheads and have them whack them over the head for being maliciously moronic and completely oblivious to the clear warnings of the last century of technological advancement.
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