The Vorkosigan Companion - Lillian Stewart Carl [48]
Another group of scientists examined the possibility of creating an artificial placenta to keep mid- to late-stage goat fetuses alive. They attached catheters to the umbilical blood vessels, exchanged nutrient-enriched blood with the blood of the fetuses while they were held in a tank of artificial amniotic fluid, and managed to keep a few alive to full term. For various reasons, these experiments have not been continued, but the research does sketch out a path for future exploration.
Though there have been some exciting advances in the area of reproductive technology, today's technology has not yet reached the level of the Vorkosiverse uterine replicators. As Bujold explored this topic more than twenty years ago, it is impressive that the uterine replicator technology is not now outdated, but rather a cutting-edge topic of research.
A second major feature of the Vorkosiverse is the cloning technology, which includes creating specific body parts or whole humans. Cloning to create tissues or body parts or even organs from the genetic material from a single cell is called therapeutic cloning. Bujold explores this kind of cloning in the Vorkosiverse: characters get their hearts replaced with new ones grown from their own cells (Mirror Dance), reconstructive surgery can replace a face better than new (The Warrior's Apprentice; Ethan of Athos), and new body parts can even be grown that can then convert a female to a fully-functioning male (A Civil Campaign).
Reproductive cloning, or cloning whole humans from a single cell, is usually the immediate thought when cloning is mentioned. Bujold addresses this type of cloning head-on: her main protagonist, Miles Vorkosigan, is cloned by his family's enemies. That clone first becomes part of the picture in Brothers in Arms, but his role as a main character continues throughout many of the books in the series.
In Mirror Dance, Miles's clone, known as Mark, not only is one of the main characters, but is a viewpoint character for much of the story. Not coincidentally, the storyline for Mirror Dance involves many other clones as well, including an entire family of doctors created by cloning, the Duronas. Cloning means taking all the genetic material (the nucleus with its chromosomes/DNA) from one cell and creating a new tissue/organ or a whole new organism from that genetic material. While some science- fictional depictions of clones have the resultant organisms being completely identical in mind as well as in body, Bujold's clones are appropriately individual even though they share the same genetic material.
In reality, a clone is no more than an identical twin born at a different time. Identical twins also share the same genetic material, but most people who have met identical twins will know that they do not really look completely identical and that they are not mental duplicates of each other. Thus in Bujold's work, the clone Mark's personality is accordingly as much shaped by his experiences as is Miles's.
In science-fictional contexts, a clone also has a tendency to appear in almost no time at all, which would really be impossible to accomplish. In the Vorkosiverse, Mark was not born yesterday; he is appropriately only five or six years younger than Miles and was growing and being trained for years. Avoiding other science-fictional clichés, the clone also does not become Miles's evil twin.
Bujold has also explored some of the ethical and societal effects of this technology: one of the main plotlines in Mirror Dance involves a clone-farming operation that provides young healthy new bodies to wealthy elderly clients, utilizing a technique known as brain transplantation. Unsurprisingly, this is not looked upon as an ethical option, but as an illegal blot on society. In addition, different planets