i t takes courage to confront mortality, my friends. and i see it in each of y o u . my name is dr. henry sanger and i'm here to reward your courage. l y d i a applauds. the tour group dutifully follows suit. sanger whispers a question in lydia's ear. she broadcasts her response-
n e w gaza. yes, very good oncology unit.
i t doesn't get any prettier, does it? but this is not a freakshow, my friends. this is a war museum. a history of our battles with mortality.  and defeats. take the stem cell, for instance. a bid to cultivate human parts for transplant - in rodents, primates, barnyard animals. it's enough to make your skin crawl. in some cases literally, giving rise to a new range of cross-species viruses. but that's how we learn. from our mistakes. the y turn a corner. another hall of windows, portals onto tanks of amber fluid that might be formaldehyde. suspended within are embryos, fetuses and infants. all human. all grotesquely mutated.
c a s e in point, the clone. back in the beginning, the mapping of the human genome was declared a historic landmark- t o break the curse of heredity, to correct congenital defect.  genetic engineering became the brave new world of medical science. a bright future that led to a dark age and much of the legislation we know today. but while the clone laws may have narrowed the field, science marches on. only to hit the same wall over and over again - the enigma of growth, the alchemy that takes us from embryo to adult. a clone barely reaches infancy before its growth enzymes misfire, resulting in the kind of monstrosities - which are only effigies - you see here.
so what do we learn from our mistakes? that human parts cannot grow outside a human body. that human bodies cannot grow outside nature's grand design.
l e t ' s say one day you go to your doctor for a checkup. he discovers you have imminent renal failure and require a kidney transplant. what would you do?
e v e n if your brother's kidney is with- o u t defect, there's still a 38% chance of rejection. or less if he's your twin.
but what if you did have a twin?
what if you had a genetic double who'd give you not just one of his kidneys, but both? in fact, any organ or body part you ever had cause to need?
i said the problem with a clone is it doesn't survive infancy. the solution is to find a different starting point. why sow the seed when you can create the fruit? or what we like to call.  an "agnate".
an agnate is sequenced from a point on the cellular timeclock. i t is spawned post-maturate. it is `created' adult.
the spare parts, as you put it, need to be tested for integrity. but as many of our clients leave it till late in life to take out the policy, we do offer the option for early harvest. given the risks, however, a waiver is required.
an d what if the organ you needed was a heart? ask yourself, each of you. if you had to put a price on your life, your very survival - what would it be?
i t ' s a question your insurance company has already answered. for them, the agnate obviates costly and ineffective treatment programs. should you decide t o take out our policy, not only will they lower your existing premiums but they'll also cover the production cost.
that's entirely his decision. our role is intermediary. we, as the insurance provider, guarantee the condition and availability of the agnate but all other rights are retained. in legal terms, the policy holder is defined as a "sponsor". the premiums, in effect, becoming sponsorship payments, maintaining the agnate until such time as harvest is required. at such time and where feasible, the sponsor has the option to extend sponsorship, retaining the agnate for secondary harvest or, shall we say, let the policy expire.
n o . not as you and i know it, at least. the associations of life and death are no more applicable to an agnate than to a cow in a field. it exists in a state of limited consciousness - aware not of life but of functionality. imbued with the knowledge to maintain its function but without the capacity to question it. and yet, in many ways, the end if the most humane part of the process. the agnate goes to harvest without any fore- b o d i n g and is painlessly returned to the sleep from whence it came. eternal or otherwise. there is mortality for an agnate. just utility and redundancy.
w h o does know my friend? who among us knows our true purpose in life? s a n g e r ambles on, plunged in thought. lydia picks up the slack-
yes . . . now some of you may be thinking this commercial is staged. but these are not actors, these are past customers. real p e o p l e enjoying the real f r u i t s of sponsorship. what we offer here at the sanger institute is not just health insurance but indemnity. what we offer is the chance of a new lease on life.
n o w lydia will walk you through the rest of the tour and explain the various limitations and exclusions. but i do have time for a few questions. h a n d s are raised. a waspish-looking woman butts ahead of them-
you mean the maternity plan? no. n o t endemic infertility at least. as i said, the law prohibits genetic alteration so a defect endemic in a sponsor will also be present in their agnate. no, what the maternity plan provides is a way round the risks and rigors of childbirth. under this plan, an agnate becomes eligible for pregnancy shortly after foundation. a simple donation of sperm from the father, then the agnate is fertilized and brings your baby to term.
f o r practical reasons, delivery is handled by your healthcare p r o v i d e r .
the same rule applies. you can continue your sponsorship. or not. and in this case, there's a natural window for compliance as the agnate is routinely sedated after delivery. as to whether it wakes up from that sleep, like i said, the choice is yours.
don't be so alarmist, ellen.
bureaucracy.
they're not going to pull our license, ellen. we have a lot of friends on the commission. not to mention the goodwill we earned in dc when we took over the facility; a bunker complex for a bio- chemical war that never happened.  we relieved them of a costly embarrassment.
alright . what do you suggest?
that's a little drastic. some immune systems are more adaptive than others.
even so, the worst may not happen.
ellen , we operate under state license on a lease from the federal government.
e i t h e r way, it's unlikely they'd get that far. it's at least twenty miles to the next settlement. right, bernard?
and i don't think we should panic.
i n other words we need to find them o r else. that's very astute, ellen.
the bond agents. yes. unfortunate.
i thought we'd covered ourselves.
what are you talking about?
i still don't see the problem.
that's why we have you, ellen.
i t was a marginal problem. and it was under control - according to bernard.
i t doesn't even touch their genetics.
i've spent my entire career facing down naysayers, ellen. don't think for a second i'm afraid of facing them now.
a l r i g h t . what do you suggest?
a r e you insane?
an agnate could give me a new heart but to get it to function mentally.
a r e you quite finished?
you see that street down there? running east from the stadium. my father used to take me to church on that street. an old spanish church.
i didn't know they'd torn it down.
m y name is henry sanger. i'd like to offer my deepest condolences.
this is bernard merrick our facility director. he knew ester personally.
n o t h i n g so devious, mrs. ester. we simply wanted to find some way to heal the wounds from this incident.
o f course. please.
don't interrupt, ellen.
i understand.
n o , ellen, that's enough. i think mrs. ester has said all there is to say.
did we?
c a s e in point, the clone. back in the beginning, the mapping of the human genome was declared a historic landmark- to break the curse of heredity, to correct congenital defect.  genetic engineering became the brave new world of medical science. a bright future that led to a dark age and much of.  . . . l e g i s l a t i o n we know today. but while the clone laws may have narrowed the field, science marches on. only to.  i'm sorry, i'm f.