By Reason of Insanity Page 10

  "Why did you tell me this?" I asked her.

  “Because I want you to know that I'm capable of anything."

  I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I just don't believe this story. I know that your therapist said that that's what happened, but that's because you told him this story. I don’t believe that you even knew this guy Frank Cerelli, let alone that you killed him.”

  Maybe it was the way that she was telling me this story so nonchalantly that I just didn’t believe her. She told the story about him raping her the way she would tell me about the cake that she was making for dessert that evening. 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of flour, butter, pinch of salt. Oh and I murdered somebody, after he raped me. That was the way she told the story. It was almost like it was an afterthought.

  "You don't believe my story. That's okay, you soon will. You’ll soon believe that and a whole lot more.”

  Somehow, when she said that, it sounded like a threat.

  Chapter 18

  The next day, I decided that I was going to start my investigation at the Pegasus company. There was just something about the whole cloning thing that was sticking in my craw. I had read up about the cloning issue with regards to Pegasus, and discovered that the company was conducting twin studies. For some odd reason, the whole twin studies aspect was something that stood out to me, so I decided to make an appointment with the person who was in charge of that particular department for Pegasus.

  Dr. Weber was considered to be one of the leading researchers on genetic influences and how they affect traits, disorders and phenotypes. He was the head of the Twin Studies Department of Pegasus, and I knew that I was going to have to start with him. I was going to have to figure out exactly what I was looking at.

  He agreed to meet with me over lunch, explaining to me that lunchtime was the only time that he had to meet with people, because he was busy the rest of the day. He also told me that he found it important to speak with me, which was encouraging.

  We made an arrangement to meet at a seafood restaurant on the water next to Seaport Village. Seaport Village was an area in San Diego that was bordering the San Diego Bay. It was a consortium of tiny little mom and pop shops and restaurants. On the weekends, you’d find everything from psychics giving tarot readings to young Mexican women selling homemade jewelry. One guy was famous for balancing twenty stones, one on top of the other.

  The Harbor House restaurant was kind of an old school seafood restaurant with a wooden facade, like you might see in Maine, and it had a large dining room that looked out onto the water.

  I met Dr. Weber there. He was already waiting for me in the enclosed dining room. Dr. Weber was about 50 years old, with hair that was salt-and-pepper at the temples, and a weathered face.

  He stood up and shook my hand as I sat down, and I felt like an absolute kid next to him. I didn't know why I felt that way, except that he kind of reminded me of my dad.

  "I'm really glad that you wanted to meet with me." He put his napkin in his lap as I sat down. He had a bottle of wine in front of him, and he went ahead and poured me a glass. "I just had a feeling that you were going to want to find out about this research, and what we're doing. When Lawrence was murdered, I knew that my department was going to be the first place people were going to start looking. I figured it was probably good that I got on top of it."

  His eagerness to talk to me was just a little bit unsettling. I got that he wanted to get ahead of it. But what exactly was he getting ahead of?

  "I'm really glad that you wanted to meet with me as well." I took a sip of the wine. It was something smooth, dry. Some kind of Chablis, or Chardonnay. I wasn’t really sure, because I didn't know my wines all that well. All that I knew that it was quite tasty, fruity and cool. And that it was welcome, considering it was a hot day outside.

  Looking out the window, I realized how much I really wanted to be in my wetsuit and riding the waves, not talking to this guy in this restaurant. But it was what it was.

  "So what kind of information do you want from me?" he asked.

  "I just wanted to know what exactly you were doing, as far as with your twin studies?"

  “Well, it's just like it says. I've been conducting studies on identical and fraternal twins. Mostly identical twins, however. This is been going on for quite a long time. We hardly are at the forefront of this research. We’ve been studying how identical twins that have 100% of the same gene are different from one another, and why they’re different. We specifically study twins because we want to see what the impact is on nature versus nurture."

  "I see. And what is the purpose of twin studies for your company?” I asked.

  "It has to do with our cloning research. I'm sure you are aware that we are on the forefront of that particular field. There is a race to see who can be the first to clone a human being. It’s much like the space race from the 1960s. I understand that a lot of people have a lot of problems with the concept of cloning. The bioethics of it and all of that. But you have to understand that there are certain reasons why parents might want to have their child cloned. And I can assure you that it has nothing to do with the desire to have an extra child that would be able to donate organs to the first child. That, of course, would be murder, and it is not something that we would ever condone."

  “So tell me about the cloning procedures that your company is involved with," I said to him. "And then tell me how your twin studies relates to it."

  He nodded his head and took a sip of his wine. “Well, there are two kinds of human cloning. There's therapeutic cloning, and there is reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning is something that is very beneficial for society. It’s something that’s relatively noncontroversial. It’s responsible for many breakthroughs."

  "So tell me what therapeutic cloning is, exactly."

  “It's basically cloning cells, genes and tissues, and this cloning cannot lead to another human being,” he said. “Basically it is what is called a somatic cell nuclear transfer. We take the nucleus of an egg and replace it with the nucleus of somatic cells, such as skin cells, and then the cell divides. Because the egg is never fertilized, the genetic material is identical to the genetic material extracted from the skin. This can create stem cells which are a genetic match for the patient. These stem cells can be used to treat brain diseases such as Parkinson's disease or ALS, and also other diseases such as diabetes."

  "Okay, that sounds very good. Can you give me some examples as to how this kind of cloning can help somebody?"

  “Sure. Let's just take a man who has had a heart attack. Let's just say that this man is not eligible for a heart transplant. The heart attack has weakened his heart so much that it has destroyed two-thirds of his heart. He would not be able to return to his active life."

  "Okay. Go on."

  I took some of the bread out of the basket, put some butter on it, and popped a small bit into my mouth. I waited for him to explain to me more about the whole therapeutic cloning scenario. I had admit, this was fascinating for me.

  "Well, therapeutic cloning can regenerate new heart muscle. See, what happens is that the scientist can take a small sample of the skin cells and take the genetic material from the cell and inject it into a donated human egg. That egg will have the chromosomes taken out of it, and the egg is altered with his DNA from his skin cells. This creates stem cells that can become heart muscle cells or brain cells or any other kind of cells that are a perfect genetic match for the patient. And then the cells can be injected into the heart, to replace the cells that were lost during a heart attack."

  "And this is what your company has been focused on?"

  "Yes. We have been focused on therapeutic cloning, and also making embryonic stem cells using this same method. As you know, embryonic stem cells are a controversial subject in this country, because there’s a pro-life contingent who object to embryonic stem cells being studied and used for any kind of research. So, because therapeutic cloning can create these embryonic stem cells, we can get around
the whole controversy about people believing that obtaining embryonic stem cells is unethical. In other words, therapeutic cloning really adds a great deal to the advancement of our knowledge of the human body, and our ability to treat many diseases."

  "I have studied a little bit about the whole therapeutic cloning issue, before I came to see you, but I understand that the Pegasus company is not just involved with therapeutic cloning. You're also involved with reproductive cloning. Isn’t that right?" I asked.

  "Yes, of course. I suppose that that's the reason why you wanted to talk to me. Because that obviously is a more controversial area. People get really, for lack of a better word, weirded out by the whole concept of reproductive cloning. But, really, it's not necessarily that controversial. Or it shouldn’t be. It’s just another method of creating a new life."

  “What, in your view, are the advantages of having a cloned child, as opposed to, maybe, having a child naturally or going through in vitro fertilization or another method to have a child?"

  "Good question. There are certain advantages that human cloning might have over your standard in vitro fertilization. For instance, if you have a child through standard in vitro fertilization, there’s always a chance that the child will have some kind of a genetic malady. Such as, for instance, Down’s Syndrome or Huntington's Disease, or any number of diseases that are caused by some kind of a defective gene. With human cloning, if it is perfected, the child won’t be born with such maladies, because the child will be born with the genetic code of the donor. So that's one obvious upside to human cloning as opposed to standard in vitro fertilization."

  As he spoke, I started thinking about the concept of eugenics, and how what he was talking about skated close to that line.

  "Another advantage to human cloning, as opposed to in vitro fertilization, is, and I know that this is controversial, but there are some parents who sincerely want to clone their child. Especially a child who has died. They desperately want to bring that child back, and if you actually bring that child back through cloning, it will be as if the child never died."

  “So that's where the twin studies come into play, right?"

  "Right. We obviously are interested in the nature versus nurture controversy, and how nurturing can affect the child's upbringing, a child's disposition, and so forth. We want to be able to explain to parents who would use our services in the future, when our cloning technique is perfected, exactly what they would be looking at as far as their deceased child coming back into their lives. We want to be able to tell them, with some degree of certainty, how much the new child will be like the previous child. In order to do that, we need to know much more about how much the role of nurturing plays on that child."

  "Are you at all aware that what you're doing smacks of eugenics?" I asked him.

  He sat back in his chair, and steepled his hands. I could tell he was used to being asked this very question, and he had a ready answer.

  "No. Not at all. You see, there's a societal cost to genetic disorders. A very high societal cost. Individuals who have genetic disorders not only cost the healthcare system a lot of money, but, they also are, for lack of a better word, a drag on our economy. An individual with Down’s Syndrome isn’t going to contribute much, if at all, to society, over the course of his or her life. That child is never going to be able to cure cancer, or find or produce the latest software miracle. Most likely, the child will end up being institutionalized for the rest of his or her life, at the taxpayers’ expense. Of course, that's not always the case, because oftentimes parents want to care for the child on their own. But that child will also incur expenses, societal expenses, because the parents would be entitled to collect disability payments for him or her. The child will use up an inordinate amount of medical resources, which makes everybody’s health care costs rise. Everybody pays.

  And, if an individual has some other disease that is caused by a defective gene, such as Type 1 Diabetes, Huntington’s Disease or Sickle Cell Anemia, that person is going to cost the health care system millions of dollars over the course of his or her life. Insulin is extremely expensive, and that’s something that will cost every person who is in the insurance pool. If your insurance costs are sky high, the reason for that is because there are so many sick people in the world. When insurance companies have to pay millions of dollars for the treatment of one person, they have to pass those costs along to everyone else. A lot of the sicknesses that we are experiencing in this world can be eliminated through the proper application of genetic therapy, which would include the possibility of human cloning."

  "So, perhaps you’d like to create a master race? Maybe you’d like for society to just be composed of people who can give back and the people who are less fortunate, who don't have the ability to give back to society, through no fault of their own, should be eliminated?"

  "You make it sound as if I'm a monster. I'm not. Listen, we have a lot of problems in this country. In this world. A lot of people are miserable, for various reasons. Do you think an individual who is dying of Huntington's Disease, which is, I can assure you, a most horrible death, is happy? Would you like to lose the ability to speak, all of your cognitive facilities, the ability to walk, the ability to bathe yourself, while knowing that you're going to die anyway? Do you believe that the parent of a Down’s Syndrome child is happy? I know, a lot of them say that they are, but it has to wear on them. Caring for a profoundly disabled child, day after day, is taxing, stressful. Some of the genetic diseases are monstrous. They are diseases that I wouldn’t wish upon anybody in this world. If we could avoid them, why wouldn't we?"

  I could tell he was getting defensive. And why shouldn’t he? I was asking him sharp questions, and he probably was not expecting that I would be asking these kinds of questions of him.

  "So, are you also going to, maybe, only take genetically superior people for your client experiments? I mean, if an individual came to you, and this person happened to be of low intellect, or had some other kind of disability, would you take that person on as a potential client? Would you want to clone that person?"

  The doctor went silent, which spoke volumes. I could tell that he was thinking in his mind that no, we would only take people who are genetically superior. People who are of sound intellect with no kind of defects.

  He really was trying to build a master race.

  "Society will thank me, and our company, over the years. In 50 years, if human cloning becomes a practice that is accepted, and utilized, I would think our society will be much better off for it. Listen, nobody wants their child to have a genetic disorder. Nobody. If there's a way to avoid that, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you want to have a child who you can be assured is free of any kind of genetic disorder? A child who for sure will not have disabilities, who is physically able to contribute to society as much as he or she possibly can. Let's face it, if you have a child, either through the normal way or through in vitro fertilization, it’s a crap shoot. Anything can happen with that child. Anything can affect the child's genetic code and cause him or her to be something less-than."

  I raised an eyebrow. "Something less than what?"

  "Something less than fully human."

  I sat back in my chair, and crossed my arms in front of me. I was starting to wonder if this guy was defective himself. Mentally defective. He certainly was open with what his company was trying to do, and proud of it. Who says things like a child with a disability is less than human in front of someone that he or she just met?

  I represented people like him in the mental institutions that I worked at. They were called sociopaths. Not that this guy necessarily was a sociopath, because I didn't know if he had a conscience. However, he certainly had a warped view of the world.

  The guy went on. "Look at all the diseases that are caused by genetics. Cystic fibrosis, which is a hideous disease that damages the lungs and the digestive system. You have to constantly break up the fibroids in your lungs and people who suffer from that diseas
e have infections throughout most of their lives. CF affects every organ in the body, like the pancreas, because it prevents the release of digestive enzymes and it affects the liver because it blocks the bile ducts, which causes liver disease. Children with CF have stunted growth and, as with all major genetic diseases, they incur a lot of medical bills. Sickle-cell anemia causes a lot of pain and infections, along with delayed growth and vision problems. Again, people with this disease are a tax on our medical system. The list goes on. I don't know about you, but I would like to live in a world where there's less suffering. One of the ways of doing that is to make sure that only the best genetics are passed on from one person to another."

  I decided to just go ahead and let him talk. I was having a feeling that there was something off about this guy.

  He seemed to be somebody who was capable of murdering somebody. In fact, I was surprised that he wasn’t telling me about how people who have inherited diseases should just be euthanized. That was probably next.

  "It’s not just genetic diseases," he said, gesturing his hands wildly. "It's that, how can I say this, the only people who are going to be able to afford human cloning in the future are going to be persons of means. I know that you probably are aware that there is a link between low intelligence and poverty. If only people of means were allowed to reproduce, then we’d have a utopian society, where everybody is contributing towards the good of the whole. Nobody would be on welfare, nobody would be on food stamps, nobody would be on disability. Everybody would be pulling their own weight. I think that you would agree that such a society would be much better than the society we have now."

  I wasn't exactly sure what he was getting at. "Are you saying that your dream is to have a society where only human cloning is the way that people reproduce? No one else is going to be able to have kids the normal way?"

  He chuckled a little bit. And then he took the swig of his wine. "Oh, if only that was possible. But no, everybody believes that everybody needs to reproduce at random. This is what they want. No matter what kind of genes you're passing on, no matter how little money you have to care for a child, it seems to be everybody's right just to have kids that they can just destroy. I don't believe in that. I believe that that is the kind of mentality that has destroyed our society. I'm working towards correcting that. That’s all I'm doing. Correcting it."