Jacob Dalton
Dr. Boese
9/15/98
English 102
The Soul of a Machine
 
 

In the world of what is no longer science fiction, cloning and other assorted forms of gene manipulation bring about serious questions regarding the pros and cons of the moral and political issues found in the science.  While as far as we know, a human has never been cloned or reproduced other than by natural means,  I believe that we should not achieve this feat until we have already answered questions like “do replicants have a soul?”  Suppose one day, as suggested by countless science fiction stories, that we found a way to eliminate many of the diseases which have plagued our planet simply by manipulating the genes which design us.  Using this technology, we could create doubles of ourselves, or just create genetically perfect beings to help us advance ourselves.  By the same token, we could possibly make ourselves immortal by simply reproducing a younger version of ourselves when we get old.  We are playing in God’s domain and we should approach it with that kind of respect.  Also we should remember that only God controls the human soul, not us and we should not attempt to decide who does and who does not have one.

 
 Genetic Engeneering and the Soul
If the people we create are grown in a lab, does that mean that they are not human?  I would argue that we are all created in lab of one type or another.  I believe that a person is person. In our infinite imperfections, I am still skeptical if we could even create a person to act identical to us.  The idea is though, that by replicating what God has done, that we can create another person.  If this is the case, then we are simply reproducing ourselves, just like we have been doing for centuries.  For instance if two people wanted to have a baby and the mother was sterile, it seems quite reasonable to me to grow the baby in an artificial womb.  If possible, it would be great to mix the genes of the two parents and make them a baby.  What is wrong with two people who marry and by mixing their genes create a baby out of love?  It seems to me that this still honors the centuries old tradition of how families are put together.
Rights
    Cloning and genetic engineering; while their benefits are boundless, can be abused as well.  An example of this is Rachel from Blade Runner.  She, like any other human, cherished the thought of her mother.  Her memories as child, which shaped her person, are what made her who she is.  Only one day she realizes that all these cherished memories are fake and that she was created only for experimental purposes.  Her life was ruined simply because those that created her did it for other than charitable reasons.  I feel that history has proven that our societies have always worked better when people adopt a religion of their choice which is accepted by the general population.  For example, Hitler decided to conform everyone to a religion of his creation and persecute those of any other.   This is, in fact, a form of genetic engineering. He used unnatural methods to try and create a master race.  His ignorance of what is ethical caused him to be responsible for millions dead and a crumbling society.  I believe that the leaders of the time of Blade Runner were making the same mistake as Hitler.  They tried to conform all those that they engineered into their master slave race with out giving them the leeway for a kind of their own religious freedom.  Those that differed from the conformity of this religion were “retired” early.  Thus it seems to me that if we create these people we should do it for the right reasons and not treat them as if they were machines, but real people with real souls.
Prejudice
The idea of a home grown human has brought chills down people’s spines ever since the idea was introduced a long time ago in science fiction magazines.  Even simple genetic engineering is quite terrifying to some.  In “The Dark Side of the Genome,” the author expresses concern that even looking at our genetic codes is dangerous to our society (Weinberg, p303-6).  How could someone who knew that they were going to develop cancer get insurance or even attract a mate.  If even just looking at a genetic code can wreck our state of existence, then creating a whole person out of it would be disastrous.  If we were to create a new race of people, how could we trust our own creations?  They couldn’t have soul because we don’t have the power to give them one.  They will in all likeliness be very different from us.   We do not really consider animals to have souls, so therefore, a non-human form of life could not have a soul either.  Essentially, these creatures would be totally different from us because they weren’t created the same way we were.  That is the defining inferiority between us.  We engineered them.  In a way, they are nothing without us.  If we didn’t exist, then these replicants would not exist either.
Racisim and Labels
Unfortunately, the whole idea that one race of people is superior to another is simply racism.  In a sense, we are merely saying that these people are animals because they do not have souls like us.  They are inferior to those that hate them because they are different.  While it is true that they would not exist with out their creators, the same could be said about any of us.  If our parents did not exist, we would not either.  In my opinion, these creatures are just one step in a chain of racism and prejudice.  First it was black people, then it was Jews, now its gays, next it will be our own clones.  I think that the biggest misconception in this chain of thought is that we were the ones who had souls to give them.  When in reality, all we are doing is reproducing ourselves and God gives them a soul because they are still His creation the same way any child produced by “natural” means is.  When will people realize their own weaknesses?   We know that we will react poorly to anything new that we do not understand.  To simplify our method of thought, we attach labels to everyone and everything instead of realizing each person as an individual.  We go through life saying that puppies are good snakes are bad.  It is basically how we perceive the world around us.  As a chemistry student, I use the periodic table to generalize and label and predict the make up of our universe in order to better understand it.   In the same way we use this type of chemistry on our own society.  We try to predict what is good and bad about everyone and everything by generalizing and labeling.  That’s why when some see a replicant who is artificially created they attach a label of soulless machines and think nothing more of it.  Maybe one day we will realize this about ourselves and evolve to something better.  In my opinion however, until we make this discovery about ourselves and we realize that all life is precious and this and this whole conception about soulless humans becomes a stupid question, we have no business playing God.

Any human has a soul, even the animal like ones among us.  Respect is something we should have for all things that have life.  To say that they are not human is to simply repeat Hitler’s mistake.  We should keep in mind that all things exist for a purpose and that they should all be understood.  The soul is something no one can completely understand and therefore we will never have the luxury of manipulating it.  After all, it is the one part of nature to which only God holds the key.