I read a kind of a peculiar story from Wired News. A company called Biopresence is working on a way to create living memorials by adding human DNA from a dead person to the genes of a tree. The genetic manipulation would be done in such a way that the human genes would not affect the appearance of the tree or the function of the tree’s own genes. When my mother died five years ago, I found some comfort in the fact that some of her genes lived on in her children and grandchildren, so her physical essence wasn’t quite gone. But part of the comfort is in seeing that DNA expressed; I and some of my brothers have her nose, for example, and I have inherited some of her stubbornness. It’s kind of a romantic idea, I guess, to have a loved one’s DNA bound up in that of a tree, but to me it’s not all that meaningful. To each his own. The estimated cost is $35,000; if I were going to spend that kind of money memorializing my mother, I’d give it to an organization that helps teach children to read and gives them books, or that researches hypertension and stroke.
Memorial trees
