You know, GE. Your post reminded me of the Dune series by Frank Herbert again. Their was a race of people that trafficked in gentetics and cloning body parts for the soldiers of the jihad against the machines. They did exactly what you were talking about. Started out as heroes of the jihad, then began taking body parts from dead jihadis, THEN started farming them by killing innocents and staging fake battles to get parts.
They eventually got busted. I know. Off topic. Just saying.
Well, Mad Dog Mattis keeps a copy of Marcus Aurelius with him. When asked why, he said it’s a reminder that there is nothing new under the sun.
History repeats, and fiction is just an expansion of life.