30 years of Jurassic Park and the Lesson of Cloning

The 1990s would go down as one of the best decades for cinema. The decade would bring about many memorable classics from thrillers, sci-fi, drama, comedy, and action.

The summer of 1993 even saw a movie that would join the billion-dollar box office plateau in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.

Jurassic Park is a movie adaptation of a 1990 Michael Crichton novel of the same name. It tells the story of a group of scientists trying to escape an island that is an attraction of a future amusement park with real-life dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs were brought to life thanks to a wealthy tycoon named John Hammond who assembles scientists to use DNA from a mosquito preserved in amber discovered by miners in Costa Rica, to bring them back to life.

The practice did raise some questions and concerns about ethics.

The Catholic Church says that cloning is, “a predetermined act which forces the image and likeness of the donor and is a form of imposing dominion over another human being which denies the human dignity of the child and makes him or her a slave to the will of others.” (See this document from 2002). Cloning is seen as an offense to God and it makes the scientist take the place of God.

One big scene that raises the cloning issue is that of the lunch scene before a hurricane passes through. Dr. Ian Malcolm criticizes John Hammond, a wealthy billionaire who brought the dinosaurs back to life. He talks about how Hammond’s way of genetics to bring the long-extinct dinosaurs back to life and that he believed the scientists should’ve asked the question, “If they should?” He goes on to accuse him of exploiting nature with the resurrection of dinosaurs.

Another person who raises a concern is Dr. Ella Sadler. Sadler raises the fact that a long ecosystem that is brought back and many different dinosaurs will violently defend themselves, concurring with Malcolm’s criticism.

The other person at the table, Dr. Alan Grant would join his colleagues in the ethical questions Hammond raised with his endeavor of bringing back dinosaurs after more than 65 million years.

The scene shows a group of scientists who understands the ethics of genetics and how megalomaniacs don’t think with a clear conscience about what they do.

From a faith perspective, we are not God. Only God is the creator. Far too often, our culture has played God in the decision on who lives and dies (abortion, death penalty, and euthanasia) and other issues about God’s law that are being reversed by lawmakers.

Like the scientists who openly tell the billionaire what went wrong, we too must voice our criticisms of when someone is promoting sin without attacking the person.

Jurassic Park is a great movie with a bit of everything. It has stood the test of time after 30 years. The lunch scene is the most iconic part of the movie, especially as their critique of his practice would come true.