Emily Wills
The Hybrid Embryo Debate
‘...not even my greatest enemies would say that I was
30% a daffodil...’ Edward Leigh, MP
The mechanics, let alone the science, are troublesome -
bits of double helix, micrographic blobs called stem cells,
quotes from pluripotent party leaders, and, shuddering close
on great white wings, the dread of something not quite human
like the story of a god just playing swan. It all comes down to sex,
airbrushed into religion, politics. She grasps, in painted nakedness
his curved, tumescent neck, while lyrics struggle with his beak,
her thighs. It’s all a blurred arousal of grunts and feathers
pillowfighting the headlines, making even presidents
slip up. But every one of us knows best - how many eggs,
and whose, and when a cell becomes a soul, and whether science
is an ugly duck, a swan, or just a playing god.
Eventually the papers seek out other monstrous flesh
to scream about, and labourers in labs and studios just carry on
asking what if and how. Our leaders, awkward on dry land, take on
whatever form the job requires, convinced that all they do
will hatch out into stars, immortalise - but we know
that could just be the same old myth as well.
Page(s) 49
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