I Will Fear No Evil

New Scientist magazine, which I have been enjoying since 1971, has a piece called "Welcome to the body shop" in its 28 February issue - on transplanting human heads - which has already had high-level media interest. One Sergio Canavero from Turin has proposed that this could be feasible as early as 2017 - and indeed it may; however, the impression is that ethical issues could mire the whole issue in such red tape that it will not happen in our lifetimes.

But it has already happened, for us SF aficionados: back in 1970, no less a person than Robert A Heinlein published "I Will Fear No Evil", about a brain transplant from an old tycoon into a young secretary's body, which I picked up in paperback in sometime around 1974 (and which my dog ate in the 1990s). This quite considerable tome - a lot longer than the average SF novel of the time - explored so many of the realistic and even completely far-fetched ethical issues (such as: the donor mind surviving with the new brain), that it should be prescribed as compulsory reading material for anyone who wants to do such a thing.

And would you believe, it is not mentioned once in the New Scientist article, nor in The Independent's commentary? What is it about SF that makes it unsuitable for mention in such an arena? Or is it simply that no-one involved in the commentary has read enough SF to remember past lessons from masters like Heinlein?

Ah, well. I have, and so probably have you, or you wouldn't have found your way here.

To coin a pun, I am two minds right now as to whether or not I approve of such a thing B-)

But to review: it was a very powerful book. Seriously, it explored all sorts of things that as a 22 year old, I hadn't thought through or even thought of. It made me think - a lot.

Then I read more Heinlein, and started to get the picture of a bit of grim, libertarian, far-right-of-centre I-know-everything-better-than-you - and I went off it a bit. He used the idea of having an old rich man in a woman's body to sound off on all of the outrageous political and moral issues he could come up with - but it's still a good story.

SO a qualified thumbs up, from nearly 40 years later: you should read it, if you are an SF fan. Just don't expect to agree with him all the time.