Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Echo and Mirror: Clone Hysteria, Genetic Determinism and Star Trek Nemesis

2007; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 3; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/1743872107081425

1743-9752

Kieran Tranter, Bronwyn Statham,

Law, AI, and Intellectual Property

This essay examines the hysteria that surrounded cloning and the law that this hysteria called forth in Australia in 2002. Through a parallel reading of two accounts of clones, the public record of cloning that ended with the Prohibition of Human Cloning Act 2002 (Cth), and Star Trek: Nemesis, it argues that instead of fearing the clone, it is clone hysteria that should be feared. Star Trek: Nemesis exposes the constitute anxieties (clone as double, clone as artefact) of clone hysteria, and offers a partial critique. In doing so it points to the foundational place of genetic determinism in thinking about cloning. Although its critique turns out to be illusionary, the film highlights the need for addressing genetic determinism in clearer thinking and lawmaking about clones and cloning. Law, Culture and the Humanities 2007; 3: 361—380