Ethical Considerations in the Natural Sciences

Black Mirror, a Netflix show that has a satirical twist on futuristic lifestyles, had an entire episode dedicated to the idea of how we might be able to talk to our loved ones when they pass. The episode features a woman who has lost her husband and is filled with grief until she stumbles across a website that promotes the idea of soaking up your loved one's virtual self from their social media websites and using this to talk to, and later on using to fill a clone with that personality. Upon looking this up, to see if this was ever a possibility, I found a website called eterni.me which is encompassing the same key ideas as Black Mirror and wants to make this a possibility. Only limited people are able now to test and see these websites capabilities as it is a work in progress, however, thousands are signed up on website's waiting list and want everything that this website has to offer for when their loved one passes. The website uses people's innate fear of death in order to capture a larger audience and wants to have access to the passer's social media websites in order to read and log every response they have had, in order to 'become' that person and be able to reply in a visual form exactly like that individual. It is unknown whether this potential would progress as far as it does in Black Mirror where the wife could pay more money and get a human clone that was programmed with her husband's thoughts. However, this raises a lot of ethical considerations and questions as even the Netflix show did not end happily ever after as one would think. If someone is able to continue to talk to someone over technology after they have passed, with accurate responses to what that individual would have accurately said, the grieving process has changed. The normal process of grieving would be interrupted and affected majorly as also demonstrated in Black Mirror when she slowly spiralled out of control and shied away from all loved ones that were still present. There are also discrepancies in what is acceptable to access with a passed individual's accounts and who has the ability to access these. Would the person who has passed, have to sign consent for this to occur? Or could families consent to this process? Facebook is a company, for one, who promotes absolute loyalty and trust with its privacy services and there was even a recent court case where parents wanted access to their daughter's account when she had died. I think if the individual that would be 'cloned' virtually, gave consent before they passed if this became and innovative and popular trend, it could be accepted however there could be potential issues if the program starts to take personal, private conversations had over social media and openly showcases this. As new and futuristic ideas approach us in the natural sciences, it is important to see ethical considerations in order to improve and be innovative in a way that doesn't cross specific boundaries and start controversies.