Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
anyone who lived to the year 2030 would be able to live forever. Esfan-
diary attracted a small but enthusiastic following of scientists, engineers,
and others during the 1970s and 1980s, offering courses through the
extension program of the University of California at Los Angeles. His
topic
Are You a Transhuman?
, published in 1989, spells out both per-
sonal strategies and paths for scientific research that will help people
achieve immortality.
21
Regrettably, FM-2030 died of pancreatic cancer
in 2000, cursing the pancreas as a “stupid, dumb, wretched organ.” Fol-
lowing his last wishes, FM-2030's body has been cryogenically preserved
and could be defrosted if research on extended longevity bears fruit.
22
Another group in the vanguard of posthuman publicity is the Raelian
movement, a cult founded by French journalist Claude Villion, who calls
himself Rael. Its several hundred members in Canada and the United
States are attracted by a message Rael received from a friendly extrater-
restrial in 1973—the revelation that intelligent life on Earth had been
created long ago by a visit from space aliens. In the Raelian view, it is
now the duty of humankind to continue the work of those beneficent
forebears, improving the species through cloning, genetic manipulation,
and other techniques. To that end, the Raelians have organized Clonaid,
Inc., “the first human cloning company.” Based in the Bahamas where
cloning is still legal, the firm hopes to make a variety of reproductive
services, including human reproductive cloning, available to the market.
Spokespeople for the Clonaid company indicate that some one hundred
women have offered to help produce the first artificially cloned child, a
result they expect to accomplish very soon.
23
Of course, one can dismiss groups like the Extropians and Raelians as
fringe movements whose ideas cannot be taken seriously. But when the
U.S. Congress took up the question of whether to allow or ban human
cloning in the United States in hearings held in March 2001, among the
first witnesses called were none other than Rael himself and the “scien-
tific director” of Clonaid, Brigitte Boisselier. “They say we're a cult,”
Rael told reporters before testifying. “But we're not a religion. Our God
is science.” Several Congresspeople who heard their testimony appeared
shocked by the claims of Rael, Boisselier, and other witnesses who prom-
ised they were well on the way to cloning humans. Rael explained that
the long-term goal was to enable adults to make clones of themselves
just before their deaths. “We would transfer, or download, or upload,
