Intro
In the film, 'Boys from Brazil', the movie takes place in both Europe, Paraguay, and America in the 1970s. The main character, Ezra Lieberman is a Nazi hunter who hears a tip from a young boy that there is a plot being schemed by Nazi's who have found sanctuary in Paraguay, South America. The main antagonist is the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele has developed a plot to recreate Adolph Hitler by inserting Hitler's DNA into 94 different mothers eggs and then growing the babies in vivo. Thinking that DNA isn't enough, Dr. Mengele attempts to recreate Hitler's childhood by replicating their surrounding environments as accurately he could. All 94 children were growing up with a smothering lovable mother and a civil servant father who gave the children tough upbringings. To further enforce the environment, he hires assassins to kill all fathers at a certain age. To consolidate, Ezra discovers the plot and in the end, comes face to face with Mengele at a North American "Hitler child's" home. After Mengele is killed by the boy, and after promising the boy not to reveal to the police of what the boy had done, Ezra is transferred to a hospital to recover. Ezra also had a list of the location of all 94 children while hospitalized. After meeting another Nazi hunter who wants the list to expose the plot to the world, in an effort to end another Hitler being raised, Ezra burns the list. His reason being that they are only children, deeming them innocent.
Fact or Fiction?
I do agree that additional science is needed to explain the film. Mostly because even as I type this, don't have all the information in order to make a perfect Human clone. Scientists in China only recently were able to clone a Rhesus monkey. (https://www.sciencealert.com/monkeys-cloned-for-the-first-time-somatic-cell-nuclear-transfer-dolly) This after 100 failed attempts, however. Just imagine how many failed Human attempts needed to be had in order to even get an embryo past its first few divisions. The ethical implications regardless if the science was there is enough for this to be outlawed. I did enjoy however that Dr. Mengele didn't stop at nuclear transfer but also knew that a similar nurture habitat was needed in order to increase the chances of success. A flaw, however, was the use of nuclear transfer in order to develop identical children. After reading the article Cloning Myths, (http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cloning/cloningmyths/) I learned that using nuclear transfer won't reproduce genetically identical clones. We get our mitochondrial DNA from our mothers which reside in the egg. As the embryo develops they retain their mothers mitochondrial DNA which leads to genetically different children. I do agree that if the science was correct that Dr. Mengele did take the proper precautions of producing 94 children. Even Dr. Mengele realized that no matter how identical the DNA and the environment the child is still its own person. Because of the lack of understanding of the science and the mishandling of the cloning process, I believe that this could have never taken place in 1978. Maybe they can make another movie in 25-50 years by making 94 baby Trumps in order to rule the world.
Personal Reaction
I personally didn't agree with the ethics of growing babies for a specific purpose. I also disagree with growing a twin for the sole purpose of helping the original child who is in need of an organ. To clone a human for a purpose that is not to live a full life deemed on their own is unethical in my opinion and most governments agree on my side. I also agreed with the choice that Ezra made in burning the list. Allowing the already 14-year-old children the right to life was the correct decision to make as they are deemed innocent. Creating life for a purpose and taking a life for an unthecal purpose in my book is strictly taboo. As Natasha Beddingield once said, "The future is still unwritten."
