Lifeline
In the near future, pig farms might grow your organs instead of your food.
Pigs have been victims of some poor press recently. I find it a bitter irony they’re being criticised for sharing several characteristics which have enabled humans to spread across the globe, and are now adapting to take advantage of our messy ways. But we’re also adapting them. Entrepreneurs are dreaming of porcine factory farms to produce an unlimited supply of human organs. Martine Rothblatt sees a day when both transplantable and 3D-printed organs will be readily available and saving countless lives.
These developments have inspired the flash fiction below. I’ll leave you to judge whether it portrays a dystopian or utopian version of life’s future lottery, and who might be the winners or losers in this particular donor-recipient relationship.
The cowards came at dawn to kill my pig, when we were both at our most vulnerable.
It was Christmas Eve, so I reckoned I'd got until early summer to put my affairs in order. The last operation had gone well, maybe too well. We'd been real close. Some folks get jealous over such a good match, and ours was one of the best.
Now she’s gone, stolen along with all of her precious, personalised gifts. Someone else might get lucky this Christmas, they might be happy with what they’ve done. But even if her organs don't kill them, I hope they don’t prolong whatever sickness prompted them to postmaturely terminate my own life.
When all is said and done, a lifeline is born to be a life saver – no matter who the victim is.