Spinning Diamonds

When the opportunity to come out of retirement and go on one last space mission presents itself, Vincent Lambert jumps at the chance to go down in history as the first belt miner. Unfortunately, dealing with corporate greed one hundred million kilometers away from Earth was not in the mission outline.Delivered on 22 August 2024, Forbes v Baker [2024] WASC 643 represented a turning point in the law as to what it means to be human.The Deceased, David Baker, was born in unusual circumstances and into a difficult life. Cloned by his father, his genetic code mixed with non-human material, the Deceased died leaving a wife, a lover, and a substantial estate.The Wills Act (WA) provides that a person can make a will. It is alleged by the Defendant, the Deceased's wife, that the Deceased was, by virtue of his mixed DNA, not a "person" for the purposes of the Wills Act.This case represents an important milestone in the developing law relating to reproduction, cloning and humanity.