Drawn and weary, the scientist regards the gun in his hand. For years now he's been haunted by the idea that the world will discover that he has secretly and successfully produced the first human clone. He brings the weapon up and aims it at what was his crowning achievement. It sits there across from him, coldly glaring back with mute reproach. He levels the gun and a shot rings out. It's done. He's destroyed it. Now the only thing left to do is to pick up the pieces…of the shattered marble award lauding him for "Outstanding Ethical Conduct in Medicine".
So ends another chapter of "The Clone" (El Clon in Spanish or O Clone in Portuguese) a Brazilian soap opera that reached 85 million people in Brazil last year! El clon is currently showing in the U.S. (with English subtitles in most areas) on Telemundo, the Spanish-language television network that reaches 2.8 Million Hispanic households in the United States. The Brazilian producer of the soap opera, TV Globo, has already announced the sale of the series to other broadcasters in Latin America and Russia.
The plot of the soap opera is centered on Léo, a sometimes weird and most of the time good-looking young guy. Léo is the world's first human clone, created fifteen years before Dolly. No one (including Léo) knows that yet. This is a secret kept by his creator, Dr. Albieri, a presumptuous cutting-edge doctor who runs a fertility clinic.
Prompted by the tragic and premature death of one of his best friend's sons, Dr. Albieri produces a clone from Lucas, the dead boy's surviving twin brother. During a routine exam Dr. Albieri collects skin cells from an unwitting Lucas. A few months later, this amazing scientist working with state of the art technology produces a single embryo that he successfully implants into a surrogate mother. Nine months later Léo is born- a perfect, healthy, and cute baby boy.
Léo, the clone, was produced in total secret, without consent or knowledge of any of the persons involved. The woman who carried the baby thinks a sperm from an unknown donor fertilized her and Lucas, the DNA donor, has no idea that the doctor collected his cells for a secret audacious scientific enterprise. For several years Léo has been on a long trip with the support of Dr. Albieri who has succeeded in keeping him away from everyone who knows Lucas. Now Léo, the spitting image of a 20 years-younger Lucas, is back and eager for answers.
The soap opera raises interesting dilemmas about human cloning from the perspective of each individual. While Dr. Albieri fears to be condemned for ethical reasons he is proud to be the first scientist to create a perfect human clone leaving him torn and troubled most of the time. The only place he finds peace is in the church, where he talks about the power and limits of God and men with his long-time friend, a priest. Meanwhile, Léo, the clone, lives in a world apart, Christ-like and alone. He is tormented by the mystery of his parenthood and clueless to the fact that he was conceived in a petri dish. Léo is convinced that the doctor and his mother had an affair in the past and the doctor is in fact his father. Indeed, the scientist treats the clone as if he was his son. It is yet to be known the reaction of other characters when they find out about Léo. Will Lucas's father consider Léo his son or his grandson? Will Lucas embrace Léo as his twin brother re-born or be threatened by this younger, look-alike 'other'? And what about Diosa (which means Goddess in Spanish) the woman who gave birth to Léo? Will she be considered his mother since Léo doesn't carry her genes? How will Léo himself react when he finds out that he is a clone?
It seems that the producers of the soap opera wanted to ensure that although El clone is a piece of fiction, the public should be aware that advances in genetic research and technology hold up the possibility of being able to clone human beings. For that, scientific discussions take place and genuine research papers and scientific journals such as Science magazine and Nature are cited several times. The producers also consulted several scientists in Brazil to gain some advice on the ethical content of the drama. This includes Mayana Zatz, a geneticist at the São Paulo State University (USP) who won in 2001 the L'oréal awards for women in science with the support of Unesco. Mayana Zatz stated that she is against reproductive cloning but defends the research on stem cells for other purposes. Unfortunately, Mayana Zarz was not consulted for the scientific aspects of the drama.
The soap opera shows echoes of the nature vs. nurture debate that is still ongoing since philosophers like Kant and Hume tried to understand what is inherited and what is acquired during life. As expected, Lucas and Léo have interests in common things such as playing the guitar and they also share similar mannerisms. But additionally to that, Léo is portrayed as a prisoner of his cell-donor's memories and impressions; he is a person with no sense of identity who has no freedom to construct his own life. For instance, Léo feels a mysterious attraction for the desert and for Arab culture, a projection of the obsessive and forbidden love that cell-donor Lucas has for an unobtainable (and seemingly ageless) Arab woman named Jade. It's sympathetic magic at the molecular level, which Dr. Albieri attributes to genetic memory, a "new" concept in molecular biology introduced by this soap opera. Every time Lucas longs for Jade, Léo 's face appears soon on screen. In this sense Léo's life is redemptive and carries with it the viewer's hope that the endless love of Jade and Lucas (or someone who looks like him) will have a second chance on earth.
While governments, scientists and policy makers worldwide discuss the controversial implementation of nuclear cell transfer for research and cloning for reproductive purposes, the soap opera seems to bring the debate on human cloning closer to the public (despite it's sometimes equivocal scientific approach). Can a soap opera successfully promote and popularize complex issues of science and ethics, such as human cloning? Examining the impact caused by El clon on people's view of human cloning could be just the way to find out.
