Poll: Human Farming?

[gim73]

Okay, here is the plan:

Let's go with the best of both worlds. Make clones and put them in tanks, harvesting them for electricity while they live. When somebody needs an organ, we can just pull them out and chop them up. With the rest of the body we can make it into a generic meat based product called Soylent Green.

 

[EchetusXe]

Strongly in favour.

So uhh yeah, I'll have a brain and kidney pie please?

 

[child of lileth]

I think human farming is kinda pointless right now. I mean, what are you gonna do with it? Sure, you can make a person who specifically never does something or other, but then what? There's not really even much need for it these days anyway.

 

[Kajin]

I kind of like the idea presented in a sci fi book I read once where, instead of cloning the entire human, you just clone the organ that needs transplanted.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

-snip-

I'd prefer cybernetics because "conscience transfer" doesn't really work. Watch the Sixth Day, basically, it's a copy. A person with your exact memories and personality would exist but you, the real you, would still be dead. The copy would not feel the difference but I, the original, would, so why would I want that?
Give me cybernetic replacements instead, I want me to survive, not somebody else with the same memories.

Same reason I prefer cybernetics.
Although I also like if for the getting rid of weak flesh in pursuit of the great machine... [/tech-priest mumble]

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Why would we bother cloning a whole person when we can simply grow the needed organs for far cheaper? I realize I'm just echoing the sentiments of others at this point, but the logic for growing a whole person is nonsense.

 

[KazNecro]

Wouldn't it just be easier to use stem cells?

I agree. We're still in a massive debate over using stem cells to save lives (for which I am for, BTW). Aren't we all getting a little ahead of ourselves with body harvesting? And what do we do with the bodies once we're done harvesting them? Make Soylent Green?

 

[Sethzard]

It's fine, why not just do it on footballers, it's the same

 

[Lynx]

Against. A waste of money and research.

 

[Yorkshire_matt]

Science is moving towards systems where specific tissues can be grown so why grow all the bits that you dont need?

 

[Nickolai77]

It's a difficult issue but fortunately, with the use of stem cell's i don't think human farming will be necessary.

 

[neoman10]

I hope this happens, very soon
because if I get hit by a car, and need a new, say for example BRAIN!
I would just cut out some cloned dudes grey mass, and seize it for my own.

...

 

[IDBash]

It's not like there's a part of DNA that causes sentience.

EDIT: on second thought, you could just make it so they didn't have brains, though...

By the time we figure that out, wouldn't we already have figured out how to just grow the organs? I mean really... it would be a lot more cost-effective to just grow the organs... Also, that would take years to start and make a viable business due to the horrifically slow build time on human bodies.

 

[Latinidiot]

NOOOO
ewan mcgregor will come and kick our collective asses!

 

[Ilovechocolatemilk]

Why clone when you can just grow organs?

There's no ethical issue there. Besides, it'd be easier to grow single organs from stem cells than it would be to grow an entire human being who's been genetically modified to not have a brain somehow.

 

[Nocta-Aeterna]

These two

You don't need to make a whole human per se, you can just grow the organ in a mold from stem cells and cells from the guy's original organ.

Wouldn't it just be easier to use stem cells?

Stemcells are more effective for this. Your method is for one unethical and a waste of resources. Why keep a SECOND world population alive and fed, soly for their organs, of which you aren't even sure you'll use them, if instead you can create the required organ on demand, sort of. Also, clones have this nasty habit of being VERY hard to produce: each attempt requires a mother and they suffer from accelerated aging, depending on the age of the creature being cloned.

Also, if this is done, we should be starting to ask some serious metaphysical questions on what exactly constitutes a human being. (Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, haven't read it yet, but pan to do so).

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Why would we bother cloning a whole person when we can simply grow the needed organs for far cheaper? I realize I'm just echoing the sentiments of others at this point, but the logic for growing a whole person is nonsense.

My thoughts exactly.
And the whole clone farming thing just sounds kinda... evil "just 4 teh evulz".

 

[The Kangaroo]

I'd prefer cybernetics because "conscience transfer" doesn't really work. Watch the Sixth Day, basically, it's a copy. A person with your exact memories and personality would exist but you, the real you, would still be dead. The copy would not feel the difference but I, the original, would, so why would I want that?
Give me cybernetic replacements instead, I want me to survive, not somebody else with the same memories.

So you're arguing that it wouldn't be you just another you but when we sleep our consciousness is destroyed and a new one is created, so think about it

 

[dietpeachsnapple]

Pardon the cruel and perfectly calculated nature of it all but we have the technology to do it... we don't because of moral/ethical underpinnings.

I would put forward the question - What if the 'non-sentience' process failed? Would we be obligates to treat this human as an entity with rights? Would you have to separate him from... himself?

 

[Skeleon]

So you're arguing that it wouldn't be you just another you but when we sleep our consciousness is destroyed and a new one is created, so think about it

No, it isn't, we dream and are still (partially) aware of ourselves and our surroundings while we sleep. Ever woke up? Ever dreamt something? Ever heard of lucid dreaming?
It's not a new consciousness with the same memories that wakes up the next day, it's the same one.

EDIT: There's this one scene in The Sixth Day that really shows what I mean. Usually, the person dies before the copy is revived with its memories intact. But at one point, this guy's copy is awoken before he is fully dead but dying. At that point, they stop being the same person. The copy is a different individual from that point forward. The two people in the movie even interact for a short while with the copy disregarding the other ones pleas for help and all that.