Cloning and White Privilege

It was a beautiful day, just the same as any other that spring. But it would be a day that changed the life of young Pat Gray. Pat's parents brought him in to the hospital earlier in the week because he had a bad fall at his basketball game, where he hit his head on the gym floor. He was attempting to break his record of 40 points in one game, when he tripped while going in for a lay-up. He was traveling at such a great speed, that the impact of his head on the floor was tremendous. After the accident, he walked with erratic motions, and his speech was slightly slurred. It was one of the most devastating accidents to occur at Pat's school; he was the best basketball player at there school in years. Most people believed that he would be able to go to college on a full basketball scholarship. His parents immediately brought him into the hospital to get some tests done to find out what might have happened to their son. Now that the results of the tests were back, Pat and his parents had a meeting with Dr. Stevens to find out Pat's diagnosis.

"It seems as if your son has damaged some neurons in his brain that regulate the release of dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that controls motor movements, and the lack of enough dopamine in the brain is what leads to Parkinson's disease. Although we are not sure just yet, because we need to observe a bit more, we think Pat has acquired Parkinson's through the damage of almost all of his dopamine regulating cells."

"How is that possible?" Pat's father exclaimed. "Only old people get Parkinson's disease."

"I know this is very shocking news, but that is our current diagnosis, and we will do whatever we can to fully figure out what has happened to Pat. If we are correct so far, this is an extremely unique case in which we do not know how the damage was caused, yet we should be able to help the symptoms with medications and therapy."

"But Pat won't be able to play basketball anymore? We can't be sure that the medications will totally help him?" Pat's mom inquired.

"No, we can't be sure, but that is your only choice, unlessÐ'..." the doctor trailed off.

"Unless what?" Pat's father asked

"Well there is one option, but you would have had to plan way ahead. We can talk about it but Pat," Dr. Stevens stated as he turned toward Pat "you may have to leave the room. You can go watch TV in the waiting room if you would like."

"Okay, but what's going on?" Pat asked.

"We will be out in a minute honey, just wait outside please," His mom said sympathetically.

After Pat left the room, Dr. Stevens asked a question that Pat's parents never thought they would have to answer; or at least hoped they wouldn't have to.

"Did you have an insurance duplicate made of your son when he was born?" Asked Dr. Stevens in a low voice, because although human duplicates were legal now, there was still a stigma about them, and some people were very much against the idea.

"You mean did we clone our son?" Pat's mom whispered back.

"Yes, technically that is what I was asking, because there is a procedure that can cure your son and he would never have to worry about taking medicine, but you would need to have an identical donor, such as a clone."

"Actually, we did," Pat's father replied. "It was a new technology at the time when Pat was born, and they were promoting it all over the hospital. So we decided to try it, because it felt good to have some type of insurance if something tragic had ever happened to Pat. We didn't know too much about the technology and we hoped that we never had to use it, but we did it anyway. You are saying that this clone could save our son?"

"Yes, these insurance duplicates are kept in a common place, where they live and grow. You pay a monthly fee to keep this clone alive don't you?" Dr. Stevens paused as the parents nodded in agreement. "Well, that money goes towards feeding and generally keeping the duplicates healthy. How many did you buy?"

"Just one, we weren't able to afford any more than that," the mother replied.

"Okay, well that duplicate has been living at this place and should be just slightly younger than your son Pat, by a few months, due to the time that Pat was growing in gestation. But at Pat's age, there is not much difference between the brains after only a few months."

"Would you switch the brains of Pat and this clone?" Pat's mom asked.

"No, the company that raises the clones alters the brain so that there are only enough working parts to allow the clone to move and function normally; they are not able to live like we do on a daily basis. This allows the companies that house the duplicates to have an easier time keeping them in line. What we would do would be to take the dopamine producing cells out of the brain of the duplicate and place them into your son's brain so that he would have regular levels of the right chemicals. This would cause the duplicate to not function normally anymore, so the body would need to be frozen if you would want to save the other organs for help in the future."

"Wow, so this would completely cure Pat, and it would be like this never happened?" Pat's dad asked.

"Well all surgeries are risky, but brain surgeries have been done for so many years now that it is almost a sure thing. You should be very thankful that you had bought this duplicate, because you cannot just transplant brain cells from anyone; they have to come from someone whose brain cells are genetically programmed to work in the same way, so that the neurons form together correctly." Dr. Stevens explained. "Well, you should talk this over with Pat, and then make an appointment to meet with me and the neurologist here to talk more about the procedure."

The Grays took Pat home that day and decided that they should tell him about the conversation they had with the doctor before he asked too many questions. They explained to him about the clone, and what it meant for him and his disease. They gave details about how some people didn't agree with cloning, but that it was helpful to so many people. They told Pat that it was his choice, but that they would like him to go through with