NEVER LET ME GO CONTEXT

ETHICS

Daniel Heller-Roazen calles the clones HOMO SACERS

They are mere bodies that may be killed by humans through legally and socially accepted procedures without attracting punishment, but may not be sacrificed.

'personhood'

in never let me go, the clones art can be used to prove their personhood, yet deferrals are still not possible?

GENRE

extension of the genre 'BILDUNGSROMAN'- aka 'coming of age'

elements of science fiction are juxtaposed with the ordinary, everyday language of prose as to normalise violent, extraordinary actions.

human beings are considered distinct from non human species on account of their personhood. Conditions for personhood include: agency, autonomy, self awareness, rationality, sociability and language (which would make the clones definable as people)

NATURAL LAW THEORY

as a value based theory of ethics, natural law theory aims to measure actions by their inherent 'value'- four items determine if something is 'valuable': human life, human procreation, human knowledge, and human sociability.

IF THE CLONES ARE NOT CONSIDERED HUMAN, NATURAL LAW THEORY WOULD NOT OBJECT TO THE USE OF THEIR ORGANS.

To deny the clones the possibility of procreation would be enough in itself to condemn the donation programme as morally impermissible

KANTIAN MORAL THEORY

the imperative is based off of Kant's 'humanity formulation', which states 'an action is only right if the action treats persons as ends in themselves and not merely means. to treat a person as mere means is to regard them as solely an instrument'

miss Lucy very clearly clarifies to the students that they will be used as mere means to other peoples ends, and that Is the purpose of their existence, meaning if they are 'human' the cloning programme is morally impermissible.

if the clones did not possess personhood, the system would be morally permissible under Kantian moral theory.

SCIENTIFIC ADVANCMENT

DOLLY THE SHEEP

the tem of scientist who created dolly believed that their achievemt would help 'transform the fight against disease'- a similar atttitude to the cloning programme

dolly the sheep was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, and lots of people weren't happy about it as they feared humans would be next- this public reaction and fear of human coning makes the societal outcasting of the clones even more realistic

'cloning has had a bigger impact on science....but a smaller one on human life'

ISHIGURO'S INTENTIONS

ISHIGURO ON MEMORY

'there is a certain texture in your scenes that you become addicted to: the texture of memory'

CHILDHOOD