Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, is a film about a dystopian future where clones (known as replicants) exist as slaves designed to work on other planets. The replicants escape to Earth, and Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is hired to kill them. One of the central questions of the film is whether clones can have feelings just like other humans. Replicant Hunters ask questions to possible replicants to decide if they really are human or not, based on their emotional response to the questions. Rick tests Rachel (Sean Young) and figures out that she is a replicant, but she does not believe him. Replicants have memories and emotions just like humans, which makes it incredibly hard to tell the difference between them. Rick tells Rachel about a memory she had during the summer, and Rachel agrees with it and expands on the memory. Rick then says to her, “Those aren’t your memories. They’re somebody else’s” (Blade Runner). The doctor who created her implanted the memory into her to make her more human, which is an idea that Rachel struggles with. It is scary to think that our memories could be false and that even though we believe we are humans, we really are not. The clone’s struggle with identity is the central argument for why reproductive cloning should never be used on humans. Not only is a clone confused about its identity, in Blade Runner it is used for slavery. Advocates of …show more content…
Unlike reproductive cloning, therapeutic cloning does not involve creating full copies of organisms. Instead, it involves taking stem cells from an embryo and using them to make an entire organ that could replace the organ of a patient, rather than needing to find someone to donate an organ. However, religious activists have been consistently opposed to stem cell research and therapeutic cloning because the human embryo is destroyed after its stem cells are removed (Jensen 2). It is an interesting predicament where killing a life that is not fully developed can help save a person who is in need of an organ transplant. Personally, I believe that therapeutic cloning and the use of stem cells is ethical because it is used to help save a person’s life, whether by creating an organ that the person needs or by curing genetic diseases such as Parkinson’s that have so far been