Cloning is a controversial topic on whether it’s ethically right or wrong to artificially create life ourselves using science. The novel ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro raises social and ethical issues involving cloning and people’s choices by providing the author’s perspective on human cloning effectively. Ethical issues revolving around human cloning are surfacing both in the novel and in real life. Ishiguro explains and expresses the issues effectively in the story allowing you to increasingly develop an understanding of the subject and his point of view.
Many questions rose to the surface around human cloning in the 1960s and 70s when stem-cell research was first initiated. Scientists, Joshua Lederberg and James. D. Watson stated that cloning was dehumanizing and could lead to abnormal results and unpredicted ethical problems. In comparison, Kazuo Ishiguro's story could debatably be a gesture to the world declaring human cloning as profane and brutal. He attempts this by convincing his audience that the purpose of Hailsham is to prove to the “public society” that clones are human.
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This is when the theme of playing God comes into play. This theme is present throughout the novel. Religious people are against the idea of cloning humans as they believe people shouldn’t have the right to create “new” life as it’s God's will. Ishiguro effectively provides this in his novel when the “Children, clones” try and change their fate. For example, Ruth wanted to work in an open-plan office so she, Kathy, Tommy, and two other friends left the cottages and go find her “possible” to have her dream job. She’s playing god as much as the scientists that created them originally for a purpose in which, they become too human for the lives they are expected to live in the novel. As well as this in the novel, it shows that the students have no free will. Their lives are made up and planned for them. So their free will and freedom are nonexistent, they know their fates and futures and gradually learn to deal with their completing, which is a Euphemism for dying and becoming donors.
This all leads to debates on whether they can be called humans as they are after all copies of other humans. Although Ishiguro doesn’t specifically state this you can imply that he believes that they should be labeled human which gives effectiveness to the novel issues. Ishiguro employs the technique of a first-person narrator from the perspective of a clone to advertently deliver his beliefs. The narrator Kathy uses language that is realistic and reflects the era in which the novel is based, the 1990s.
Ethical decisions in the novel arise as the question is posed, are the clones capable of loving and losing? Or are they like bio-robots? This is a crucial point to the novel that was half answered when Madame caught and watched Kathy dance around to the song Never Let Me Go in the dorm rooms at Hailsham. It showed and proved to Madame that the children at Hailsham are capable of loving and grieving like normal humans which upset her. The song Never Let Me Go is used by Ishiguro as a symbol to show the depths of human love and the fear of losing someone close. Hence why Madame was so upset. The clones have feelings ultimately.
Another thought based on the story and how effective it became led to think that, as they are donors they must be created to cure illnesses to have functional organs. However, as there are gaps in the research the public, to this knowledge, could consider and view the clones as mutations. Their health deteriorates pretty quickly after interventions so if Ishiguro explained a little further about the lab process this ethical issue could decrease slightly.
The novel raises these issues effectively as Ishiguro excels at giving his perception of the situation that occurs in real life today. You get an insight into what it could be like to have proper human clones and how they’d live full of hope and expectations in their lives. This isn’t alright because to me in the book they are being referenced to animals and somewhat treated like animals as they have “no souls” so they are just sub-human and robots. Their intelligence is up to the standard of a proper human and you get that understanding of how their brains function/persona by Kathy being the narrator, Ruth’s personality, and Tommy’s attitude; they perform like humans. The social standards based around human cloning evolve into the storyline as they are in a closed cottage away from the outside world, no one knows they exist and when they look for Ruth’s possible, still no one has a clue. Ishiguro doesn’t clearly state whether or not people know, but you gain your ideas and views on the situation. Providing examples of what the social and ethical issues are giving me a better understanding of the book and the question. The theme of hope is present throughout as the clones have hope for a deferral on their donations, hope for a relocation/vacation, and hope for the future in general.
Another social and ethical problem that came to rise effectively is financial issues. So in life, it would be highly unethical to spend lengths of money on research funds that have many gaps and uncertainties, and they should focus on more important things that could save lives. However, in the novel, it’s shown in Hailsham, the people try and decide whether it is financially safe to invest more in the industry. In the end, it leads to cruel behavior.
The effect the story has had on these issues represents both the rights and wrongs of continuing cloning. It shows what would happen if more people were ok with the idea of creating human life in another way. It effectively tells both sides of the story and leaves room for your opinion on whether to either support or go against cloning.
They are like us humans except in the form of copies knowing their future and fate. They know what’s next. No, we don’t know, anything could happen to us tomorrow and our lives could change or alter but the clones know what’s coming and what needs to happen and just have to accept it as part of their society and world compared to ours. The novel excelled at displaying this to an extent and effect as we understood what they had in store. When really, if he thinks of them as human he should be painting them with longer and clearer lives.
The novel raises moral responsibility issues effectively as you can turn and point the finger at Hailsham, even though they did the school for the good of the children to prove they are human, they at the same time went about it the wrong way. It was an experiment that expresses the clone's humanity, but are still raised to obey the teachers and become donors later in life. However, it failed as they had to create artwork to provide the teachers with evidence of creativity. Showing the clones could be raised as thoughtful and expressive people surfaced the idea that clones could become superior to normal humans and that they have souls and are an example of humans. This idea became too confronting and scary for the broader society who turned back to treating clones like sub-humans.
Our world and society don’t want clones to become as useful and as human as actual humans so they turn to stating the facts that they are soulless and they are scientifically made in a lab. Therefore, they’re only half-human. Ishiguro shows this in the novel as they are shut out of the outside world and have no freedom, they are being protected for more than just organ donating. No one’s prepared for the impossibility of human cloning and they don’t understand the science behind it or that it’s been scientifically proven.
In the novel, there’s evidence when on one hand, Madame views the “clones” as different compared to “normal humans” and then on the other, she’s fighting for their rights and feels for them, so her disgust in the clones is casting back her guilt at how the society is viciously exploiting them.
There is no resolving these ethical issues and questions but it does open the door for opinions and conversations about the possibility of another way of creating human life.
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