SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!
Thanks for the spoiler warning. >: P
Posted on 12/03/2005 7:54:29 PM PST by Coleus
Recently, I watched a new Hollywood sci-fi thriller called "The Island." It had all the trademarks of the Hollywood blockbuster – big stars (Ewan McGregor, star of "Blackhawk Down" and both episodes three and four of "Star Wars"), slick production (filming techniques that gave it a "high gloss" and "futuristic" look), great editing (the story moved crisply), and action, action, action (the newest version of the impossible but entertaining car-chase).
What caught my attention, however, was the film's subject. It concerns a group of people living in an underground shelter. The shelter protects them from radiation poisoning. It seems there has been a nuclear war, and only these humans are left alive. Dedicated scientists prepare them to be sent, eventually, to "the Island." The Island is the last bit of uncontaminated earth – there they will begin to repopulate the earth. (The scientists, being contaminated, can never leave the underground bunker.)
As you might imagine, if you were forced to live underground, all the while knowing that a beautiful island was awaiting you, everyone is anxious to go to the Island. In order to choose those who get to go – since not everyone can go at once – a lottery is held often, and the lucky winner (or winners) goes to the Island. Every winner is, understandably, ecstatic.
Gradually, however, it dawns on McGregor that all is not as it seems. He gains access to an exit from the bunker and stumbles upon a number of operating rooms. In those rooms, he finds that the "lucky" lottery winners are actually being killed, while, simultaneously, their organs are "harvested". The scene in which one of these "winners" learns he is, in fact, the next "organ donor," is one of the most powerful in the film.
What is going on here? It turns out this is the simply the logical consequence of our materialistic world-view – when you don't believe in life after death, you hold onto life for as long (even forever) as you can. The scientists in the bunker are really engaged in perpetuating the lifestyles of the rich and famous, that is, they are making duplicates (ie, cloning) of those who are rich enough to pay them to do so; from these clones, they harvest the cells, tissue, organs, etc, that enable the "donor" to never age (and, maybe, to never die). The Island, we learn, is actually a euphemism for the (deadly) operating table – that's the true destination of the cloned humans.
The rest of the film deals with the consequences of McGregor's discovery. It is a powerful and entertaining film. I wish it had enjoyed even greater box office success, though I think it was successful, and I hope it has a rich life-after-release in the rental and cable TV markets. It makes powerful points – human clones are human beings; when you kill one, you extinguish an innocent human life; however worthy it is to want to help people (even rich people), it is never right to kill others to do so; and, despite the disavowals of our science/entrepreneurs, the cloning of humans is all about making lots and lots of money for those same science/entrepreneurs.
The old saying – a picture is worth a thousand words – is certainly true. While anti-cloning advocates like myself have been trying for years to explain the above points to the public in words, the film does it in a dramatic, and memorable, way on the silver screen. People who see the film will be horrified by the possibility such things may happen in the future.
And that's the problem. This isn't a future nightmarish possibility. The Island already exists. And its name is New Jersey.
In January 2004, the Senate passed and the governor signed an act amending New Jersey law so as to make human cloning legal. It is lawful in New Jersey to clone human beings and to implant them in wombs – it is only unlawful if they are subsequently born alive. As we all know, if an embryo implants in a womb, it will be born alive unless it dies or is killed. Thus, a New Jersey law ensures that cloning practitioners must kill them.
Why would any state pass a law that a) makes it legal to clone and implant an embryonic human being and b) requires that it be killed? The answer is simple – M-O-N-E-Y. New Jersey is encouraging the cloning industry to "grow" human beings right up to birth, and then to be killed in scientific experiments. It is scientifically certain that the results from lethal research on unimplanted embryonic human beings will be extremely limited. Thus, in order to guarantee "better" research results, leading, in turn, to greater profits for the cloners and greater tax revenues for the state, it is "necessary" for scientists to "experiment" on human beings in latter stages, in the fetal stage, when the resemblance of the unborn to a baby is unmistakable.
What is happening in New Jersey is the realization of the nightmare of "The Island". In New Jersey – and in the other states rushing to copy its law so as not to be left out of the rush for profits – the law ensures that human begins will be cloned, killed, and used as "organ factories". Truth, in this case, is stranger than fiction. "The Island" doesn't point us to a horrifying future possibility; rather, it underlines a terrible present reality.
Bill Saunders is the Senior Fellow and Director of the Family Research Council's Center for Human Life & Bioethics. The views expressed are his and are not meant to represent official institutional views of FRC.
Welcome to the Brave New Jersey
New Jersey is Off to See the Wizard
Welcome to Our Brave New World: An Interview with Wesley J. Smith, Esq.
Gov. Codey wanted a new slogan campaign for New Jersey, here are a few suggestions:
NJ, the Cannibal State -- NJ, first in Cannibalism
NJ, the baby-killing state -- NJ, the Cloning State
NJ, the Frankenstein Research Center of the World
NJ, the Democrat State -- NJ, Satan's State
NJ, the Baby-Parts State
NJ, the Teenage Abortion Leader, we will help you kill your baby
SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!
Thanks for the spoiler warning. >: P
Save.
Don't blame "socialism", nmh.
This is good old American free market capitalism. This is the powerful pharmaceutical industries based in central New Jersey getting what they want.
Maybe, but let's start by pointing out Ewan McGregor starred in three Star Wars films, episodes I, II and III. Even if you number the films as they were released he was in IV, V and VI. This article starts off saying he was in two films, three and four, which is inaccurate.
That is awesome! Where did you get that?
I thought it was a good movie, and came away from with the same post postulate that I had after viewing Shindler's List.
"Don't Ever, Ever Play God! There is one God, let HIM play it!"
IMO, "The Island" was the best movie of the summer. I don't know why it tanked.
I Image Googled "Soylent Green is people".
That cloning law is for the stem cell research center that UMDNJ and Rutgers went into partnership for.
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