Would you...?

I've just recently finished "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson. This is takes place in the not-too-distant future. Seventeen year old Jenna Fox "illegally" survives the accident that many doctors thought she wouldn't. After awakening from a year long coma, she goes through the recovery of memory lapse. On her journey, she learns a lot about her existence. This not-too-distant future has made biotechnological advances that has made synthetic bodies and brains, illegal. Jenna's father works for Bio Gel, the company that has changed everything. They made everything to possible. Blue Goo is artificially oxygenated and loaded with neurochips. They're smaller than human cell and communicate with each other they same way neurons do but faster. Once you have loaded these neurochips with some basic information, they pass on the information to other neurochips and begin to specialize. The most amazing thing is that they communicate the same way human cells. So you pack a human or a lab liver in Bio Gel and let the neurochips do the rest until it can be transplanted into someone who needs it. And guess what? Jenna is basically only 10% of her original person, meaning her parents had her in Bio Gel so she could live.

Isn't that crazy? Would you put someone you love in  the position as Jenna is in?

Jenna's parents had their reasons. On page 116, Jenna finds out that she is "fake." " 'Jenna, what difference does it make? You're still my daughter. That's all that matters-' " This is the response that Jenna's mom, Claire, says to Jenna when Jenna finally understands why her hands don't entwined right and she can't walk. If I was in Jenna position right that moment, I would freaking out. Why am I not like the rest of the world/ What am I? This is basically how Jenna reacts. "My clumsy feet. My legs. Oh, God no." The fact that she has just found out would be like being able to hear a pin drop in a class. It's just shocking news. But what comes after is really surprising and kind of shocking. Her grandmother, Lily says, "Ten percent. Ten percent of your brain. That's all they could save. They should have let you die." That last sentence just shocked me. "They should have let you die." I mean shouldn't she be happy that her grand-daughter is alive. She should be grateful that the technology they have was able to keep Jenna alive? If I was in Lily's position, I would be hugging my grand-daughter, telling her that I loved her, not trying to keep my distance away from her. Who would be that selfish and conceited to be not at least happy that their loved ones were able to survive a year long coma. I mean, I can see why Lily would chose to act that way. Would you want a loved one to be only less than half real flesh and filled with artificial cells in them? I would rather let them die than let than have to live knowing that they weren't really "human."

In my opinion, I wouldn't really have a side to side with I can see the bad and good of letting someone, artifice, live. Who wants to know that someone sitting right next to you, is only half human. That might creep you out that you can't stand having the world to be crawling with fake humans. But on the other hand, there are good. You can have your loved ones back. Though having your loved ones back, the suffering they'd be going through would pain you. They have to learn that they aren't fully human and their memories wouldn't be there. Jenna has had problems trying to remember and some problems with other memories. Such example would be this line, "Let them go." This line stood out to me. This is where she throws out the backups of her friends that died in the accident. Their voices , she hears them every time she slept. Their voices I think represent the link between her and them. They didn't want to be used as an experiment. They wanted to be freed.

In conclusion, there are many reasons for the substitutions of a real human beings with such substitutes as Bio Gel. If I were in Jenna's shoes, I'd try to understand the concept of Bio Gel and what good and bad it does for me. Then I would try to comprehend everything I could understand. Yea, that's how I would try to live my life at the time. I want to see this future. I want to understand it. I want to TIME-TRAVEL. Muwaaahhh Comment your thoughts:)