What place do genetic engineering and cloning hold in a future where humanity expands into the cosmos?
Introduction
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi is a series that holds a special place in my heart. I read the first installment so many times to the point where the mass-market paperback’s spine is creased everywhere and the cover is battered. However, I think the second book, The Ghost Brigades, is my personal favorite in the series.
(Warning: Minor spoilers ahead for The Ghost Brigades.)
Synopsis
Jared Dirac is a genetically engineered soldier in the Colonial Defense Forces(humanity’s defense organization for its space colonies). What makes him special is that he has been implanted with the consciousness of his copy model as part of a ploy to revive the memories of a dead traitor to the CDF.
Cloning in Space Expansion
In the novel, Dirac is one of hundreds of thousands of CDF soldiers stationed in various human colonies. Over the course of recorded history, humanity has shown a continuous tendency for colonization. With the expansion to space, though, comes a far greater demand for power than any earthbound imperial conquest.
Your territory expands from hundreds of miles to light-years, all of which has to be kept under control. Exposure to a force far more powerful than any rival nation also becomes a possibility. As such, it wouldn’t be an unlikely train of thought to turn to cloned soldiers as an efficient way of mass-producing protection against potential aggressive civilizations.
Health Issues
Of course, there are certain health implications as well when mass-producing individuals from a single genetic template. One example is raised in this very book:, where an alien race’s military forces are grown to an immense scale using clones. However, they’re all exterminated when an enemy civilization engineers a virus tailored to their genetic makeup and unleashes it upon them. This is a very real threat that comes with asexual reproduction in bacteria and some plants. According to research by Australian plant scientists, most commercially produced bananas are under constant threat by epidemics due to them being cloned during production. Whether artificial or natural, diseases emerging that can exploit the genetic similarities of a clone population would be devastating.
Ethical Debate
Ethical issues are another cause for debate. Clones are not unique in the sense that every other sexually produced human is, which raises concerns about human rights and social effects. Cloning genetically engineered humans to become soldiers would also violate a fundamental human right of free will.
However efficient, tailoring soldiers for war robs them of a chance at a normal life(although the cloned "Special Forces" in the Old Man's War series seem to be rather content with their predicament). The response of religions towards cloning varies, but some Christians strongly oppose the practice due to it going against the value of human life as well as its potential risks, according to BBC.
Most experts believe that cloning human embryos is now technologically possible, but it'll be quite some time before we start seeing identical individuals running around on the streets.
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Bibliography
Pegg, Kenneth G., et al. “The Epidemiology of Fusarium Wilt of Banana.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 1 Jan. 1AD, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01395/full.
“Christian Arguments for and against Cloning - Fertility Issues - GCSE Religious Studies Revision - BBC Bitesize.” BBC News, BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2jmyrd/revision/5.
Other works about clones/genetic engineering:
Mickey 7
Gattaca
The Island
More resources on cloning:
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