#two nearly genetically identical men and one is obsessed with destroying the other

[grinchwrapsupreme]

if i was more articulate i would write an essay about the symbolism of the relationship between Rusty Venture and the Monarch, and self-sabotage as a symptom of long-term abuse

[alphaternal]

* MAISIE LOCKWOOD

Benjamin Lockwood’s only daughter had died in 1995, a little over two years after the incident which ultimately destroyed Jurassic Park. Devastated and desperate with grief, Lockwood did the unthinkable: he attempted to clone a human child from the DNA of his daughter. When they were young men, John Hammond and Benjamin Lockwood built a custom lab under Lockwood’s estate, which ultimately led to the founding of International Genetics Incorporated (InGen). He had all the resources at his disposal, and no authority to stop him. When Hammond had discovered what he was doing, their friendship was shattered, and Hammond had him removed from InGen entirely. But he did not stop Lockwood. Hammond had loved Maisie like she was his own family,  empathizing with his friend. But he could no longer support him, in any capacity. Lockwood agreed to remove himself from InGen’s board of directors with very little compensation, under the condition that Hammond agreed not to speak of what he had done (and secretly continued to do).

Lockwood’s guilt over this gross breach of ethics is palpable, especially as he is dying from a terminal illness. He wants redemption. He wants to ‘save himself,’ as he had put it. 

But why? What is so genuinely terrible about human cloning?

Animal cloning exists, and has existed for decades, commonly conducted through Somatic Cell Nuclear Transplantation. But primates have always been particularly difficult to clone, arguably more so than any other species on earth. Since the 1950s, when researchers successfully cloned a frog, scientists have cloned dozens of animal species since then, including mice, cats, sheep, pigs, cows... and, of course, dinosaurs. In each case, researchers encountered problems and complications that needed to be overcome with trial and error. It was not flawless, and certainly not always successful. Under Masrani Global, InGen had refined and perfected the cloning process for genetically engineered and gene-spliced animals, creating a seamless and patented transition. But Lockwood had no access to their resources or research, and was no longer welcomed by the company. 

Maisie’s remains were never buried; her body was kept in cryostasis to provide ample samples for Benjamin’s obsessive research in human cloning. There were trials and there were errors. At first, he had used the wombs of living people, under the pretense of requiring a surrogate mother. Lockwood targeted several surrogate agencies, and made huge donations to their organizations, effectively discouraging suspicion. He would also pay the surrogate mothers the full price they requested, regardless if the embryos made it to full term or not. Artificial wombs were also utilized, engineered and refined over several decades; artificial wombs proved to work better, but were not completely successful. Overall, his research would constantly hit a wall. Deformities. Miscarriages. Trial, and error.

Until August 19, 2006;   finally,  a breakthrough.  Using an enhanced artificial womb, Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC),  Extrauterine Fetal Incubation (EFI), and CRISPR-C9 gene editing technologies, Maisie Lockwood was born again.

But at what cost? The lies, the violation of ethics...

Maisie’s clone was homeschooled, isolated to the estate, and raised primarily by her governess Iris and Benjamin Lockwood himself, until he was diagnosed with spinal meningioma. As a child, she would naturally trust her caregivers, and learned very quickly that asking too many questions about her "mother" would upset her grandfather (at one point, he had even cried). She had no knowledge of her true origins, and was carefully deceived by her “grandfather” and governess. By all accounts, they raised her with the love and affection a child needed, but they did not allow her to leave the estate. As a result, Maisie is incredibly imaginative, and is known to pretend to go on safaris around the Lockwood mansion. She was the perfect physical replica of her original, and naturally curious, but wary of strangers (running away when Claire turned to look at her and caught her spying, and hiding from Wheaton as she spied on him, too). She also appears to have a photographic memory, after easily inputting a security code she had watched Eli use to enter the Lockwood’s underground lab. She can scale and climb Lockwood’s mansion, very likely because she had been doing this for a few years to escape her room and explore the grounds of the estate. Her behavior and her situation indicates that she very rarely left her home. In all her young life, she had never left Northern California.

The circumstances regarding Maise’s birth and how she had came to be born was something that Owen could not ignore. Genetic power had been unleashed; cataclysmic, man-made change. But Maisie Lockwood was just a child; that was all Owen saw. A child who needed help, needed protection, needed to recover from the tragedy of losing her grandfather and nearly being torn apart by a genetically engineered monster. She needed a safe environment.

Owen knew that Maisie’s future would be a series of traumatizing events if he didn’t actively interfere. Eli Mills was legally assigned to be her sole guardian after Lockwood died. Eli was dead. She had no birth records, no hospital records (Lockwood had a personal doctor that took house calls), and would ultimately be syphoned into the foster care system. Lockwood was also a wealthy man. If it is discovered that his death was unnatural, that he was murdered, Maisie’s origins would come into question. Owen knew it would only be a matter of time before people realized the truth... and what happens, then? Would she end up in a sterile lab, being poked and prodded, and made into someone else’s experiment? The whole world would gawk at the first successful human clone in history. Maisie would never be able to live a normal life.

So, he took her. Damned the consequences. He would go on to homeschool her, shelter her, and essentially make sure she lived a normal, healthy childhood, recovering from her trauma. Owen will eventually put her through public school, after making special arrangements to give her a new identity. When she is thirteen, they have a serious conversation in which Owen asks her if she would like to be adopted, if she’d like to call him dad.  After everything Maisie had been through, she deserved to decide. She deserved to know that her consent was important, first and foremost.