MovieChat Forums > Never Let Me Go (2010) Discussion > Clone human beings without brains

Clone human beings without brains

posted 9 years ago by aupple
4 replies | jump to latest

If a society was medically advanced enough, they could clone human beings without functioning brains. Basically grow them like vegetables in a garden. When the bodies or organs mature, harvest them and those organs would save hundreds or thousands of lives.

Or instead of organ transplants, do a whole body transplant. Just clone a healthy human specimen with a "blank" brain and transfer the neurons of someone's brain into that blank slate, and you basically have immortality.

Of course, there are many other issues that arise with this approach... medical, ethical, religious, financial... just to name a few.

[–] henrimaine 9 years ago

The idea of growing human clones without brains is suggested in The Island (2005), but there the idea is rejected because the human body supposedly grows and functions better if it has a functioning brain attached to it. I'm not a neural scientist but I believe it could be true. It would be very difficult to grow a healthy human body if you totally suppress the brain. Much easier is to simply let the clones grow up as normal humans, but limit their contact with the outside world.

[–] Gabe1972 9 years ago

That might work if the human body didn't actually need a brain to control most of the functions of growth and such. Without it, the human body isn't possible.

Why aren't cookies called bakies?

[–] RagLagertha 9 years ago

The way it is going seems to be to just grow specific organs, so I don't think any of these problems will ever arise in real life.

[–] placidazure 8 years ago

The brain regulates too many functions within the body to leave out.
Better a body, brain, but no mind.
Presupposing one can achieve that, then transferring a mind into the 'blank slate' should also be possible.