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In
1932 Huxley, in his masterpiece Brave New World, supposed a new
kind of society based on the caste subdivision. In this caste
system people are genetically divided into five categories: Alpha,
Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon . Belonging to one of them depends
only by their genome, that has given to each of them by a group of
scientists: emotions, temper, physical characteristics, they’re
all written in the chromosomes. And so the best and the brightest
intellectuals are Alphas and Betas, while Deltas and
Epsilons are the manual labourers. Huxley describes the
processes that lead to the creation of each caste’s genome
in a very detailed way. At the basis of their
“progress” there’s the Bokanovsky’ s Process whereby a
single egg will divide into eight to ninety-six buds, and every
bud will grow into an embryo and then in a man.
" Bokanovsky’ s Process is one of the major instruments
of social stability ! ” The Director says in chapter 1. This
quote represents the idea behind this modern civilization which is
characterized by lack of individuality. According to the process that was carried out on every single man, they
could create a different type of man from the genetic point of
view. For example in the creation of a Gamma or a Delta there is a
purposefully oxygen shortage to deliver them mental birth defects.
For an Epsilon it is different; in this case the high-ranking
people of BNW think bad about Epsilons… "In Epsilons," Mr. Foster points
out, "we don’t need human intelligence."
With
the Bokanovsky’ s Process, the population is made much easier to
manage. In addition to this there are all the processes that are
finalized on the individual’s control: hypnopaedia, the
Pavlovian Condition’s Process and the use of soma.
"And that," put
in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of
happiness and virtue - liking what you’ve got to do. All
conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable
social destiny.": Says the Director in chapter 1. After
genetic engineering, social conditioning is the most important way
for the government to enslave its people. The different caste
members are conditioned to never aim for a life other than their
own. This is the second major instrument of social stability.
Are
there any
points in common between Huxley’s utopian (or dystopian) world
and our world from the genetic manipulation
point of view ?
We
could say that if we want, we can recognize the Brave New World in
our world at 90 percent. It’s sure that some aspects must be definite
but it could be similar. Before
going on we can define what “human cloning” is: it’ s
an attempt to create humans identical to the donor from the
genetic point of view. This is done by taking genetic material
from a cell and injecting it into an egg, which is then stimulated
by a tiny electric pulse to begin its development. The cloned
embryo is genetically identical to the donor’ s cell used.
Many
people think that this process can be used for commercial purpose,
or only to produce “spare
parts” of human body.
“Some
people want to use cloning to produce live-born children who are
"copies" of living or deceased people. Others would use
it to mass-produce human embryos to be destroyed in medical
research.” (from http://www.nchla.org/talkingpoints.html
“HUMAN CLONING: TALKING POINTS”).
There’s
something to add.
What does the Law think about that ? Cloning
a human being could lead to infringe
some laws. In fact more and more countries have been creating laws
suitable to prevent an abuse of this process. Why ? It’s not so
simple to explain.
There are different positions about
whether cloning is right or wrong. According to the “National
Committee for a Human Life Amendment” it’s wrong. I quote a
short passage:
“Human
cloning is wrong, because it dehumanises human reproduction. All
cloning treats human beings as products, as mere carriers of
traits that others find useful. Cloning human embryos for research
(so-called "therapeutic cloning") demeans life, by
creating new human lives solely to destroy them. Cloning embryos
for live birth (so-called "reproductive cloning")
violates human dignity, robbing the child of a real mother and
father and of his or her own personal destiny. Moreover, attempts
at live birth will
require the "trial and error" deaths of countless human
embryos. Dolly the cloned sheep was born after 276 failed attempts.
The few cloned humans who survive may suffer from devastating
health problems.” (from
http://www.nchla.org/talkingpoints.html
“HUMAN CLONING: TALKING POINTS”).
Certainly
there is a part of the scientific community (surely a huge part)
that is in favour of this. I think that the DHC (..........) in
Brave New World embodies the symbol of scientific progress. In
fact when he’s talking about the Bokanosky’s Process he uses
the word “Progress” (I would say with emphasis) many times.
Given
that we have the “power” to recreate (in part) Huxley’s
world, we could be frightened by this. I think that we’ll
not reach those levels. I have faith in the help of science to
create a better world. I hope that it will be so.
Valerio
Bianchi
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