Never Let Me Go

Ever since reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, I've had this frustration with characters who try to play 'God' in novels. Because of this frustration, I found it difficult in class to think of good arguments for cloning. Just as in Frankenstein, I find the act of playing 'God' often as selfish and usually destructive. Yes, there are benefits to playing 'God' in the case of Never Let Me Go. The people that create clones of themselves are more likely to prolong their life. However, they are prolonging something that is inevitable. I'm all for maximizes your time on Earth. But people need to think of the human costs when doing this. Ah, but here is the problem right? Are these clones "human"? Or are they just medical machines for the purpose of prolonging life for the wealthy? (I'm assuming the wealthy because cloning must be an expense procedure and therefore restricted to those who can afford it)

In Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein doesn't thoroughly think of the repercussions of creating his monster. He doesn't realize the impact it will have on the people in his surroundings nor does he think of the impact on the monster. I feel this is a similar case in Never Let Me Go. The people cloning these clone children don't take the clones lives into account. I realize they tried their best to give these clone kids a "normal" life. But they are still brought to the world for a single purpose: give away their organs. It was incredibly frustrating for me to read this novel and see the brainwashing of the kids at Hailsham. It's a subtle brainwashing, but brainwashing nonetheless. On page 39 Miss Emily talks to the students and two regular phrases were brought up: "unworthy of privilege" and "misuse of opportunity". I find it ironic that these kids are "misusing" opportunity. They are misusing opportunities, but not in the sense Miss Emily is talking about. Hailsham is more lenient and I do think these kids could have left if they wanted to. Unfortunately, they are so oblivious to anything other than their Hailsham life. I could rant and rant about the mistreatment of human (or "human" depending on what you define a clone as) rights in this novel so I'll stop now. With all this being said, this was my favourite book of the course thus far!