Book Review: Never Let Me Go

Many diseases can be cured, or held at bay, by receiving a donated organ.  Unfortunately, there aren't enough organ donors available for all the people who are in need.  Kazuo Ishiguro ponders what would happen if science gave us the possibility of cloning people and society decided to do so for the sole purpose of supplying organs.  His book, Never Let Me Go, looks at this issue from the point of view of those who are clones. 

The story follows the lives of Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth from their school days through their "careers."  They attend a private school where they are told that they are special, but aren't told specifically why they are special.  The teachers subtly imply what will happen when they grow up in such a way that when they do finally find out, they accept it without question.  They are not considered fully human by non-clones, although some of their teachers try to prove that they are by encouraging the children to do art.  In some ways, it is a chilling book: that society could actually consider the clones less than human, and that the clones would not consider escaping.  One can only hope that our morals will keep up with scientific advances.

Never Let Me Go By Ishiguro, Kazuo 2005-04 - Knopf Publishing Group 9781400043392 Check Our Catalog Winner - 2006 ALA Notable Fiction Selection Alex Award Winner - 2006 A BookPage Notable Title Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth were once classmates at Hailsham, a private school in the English countryside with a most unusual student body: human clones created solely to serve as organ donors. "You were brought into this world for a purpose," advised Miss Lucy, one of Hailsham's guardians, "and your futures, all of them, have been decided." The tightly knit trio experienced love, loss, and betrayal as they pondered their destinies (to become "carers" for other donors and, eventually, donors themselves). …More

Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited By Huxley, Aldous 2005-07 - Harper Perennial 9780060776091 Check Our Catalog The astonishing novel Brave New World, originally published in 1932, presents Aldous Huxley's vision of the future -- of a world utterly transformed. Through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore consistently useful to the ruling class. This powerful work of speculative fiction sheds a blazing critical light on the present and is considered to be Huxley's most enduring masterpiece. Following Brave New World is the nonfiction work Brave New World Revisited, first published in 1958. It is a fascinating work in which Huxley uses his tremendous knowledge of human relations to compare the modern-day world with the prophetic fantasy envisioned in Brave New World, including threats to humanity, such as overpopulation, propaganda, and chemical persuasion. …More

A Clone of Your Own? By Klotzko, Arlene Judith Illustrator Mann, David 2005-10 - Cambridge University Press 9780521852944 Check Our Catalog In a lucid and engaging narrative, the author explains why the prospect of human cloning triggers man's deepest hopes and darkest fears, and forces people to consider what it would mean to have "a clone of your own." …More

Flesh of My Flesh: The Ethics of Cloning Humans a Reader By Pence, Gregory E. 1998-01 - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 9780847689828 Check Our Catalog One of the first books of its kind, "Flesh of My Flesh" is a collection of articles by today's most respected scientists, philosophers, bioethicists, theologians, and law professors about whether we should allow human cloning. This is a fascinating and comprehensive look at perspectives on this important and complex issue. …More

Mary Modern By Deangelis, Camille 2007-07 - Shaye Areheart Books 9780307352583 Check Our Catalog A remarkable debut novel, "Mary Modern" weaves modern science with an old-fashioned love story, and turns an unflinching eye on the joyous, heartbreaking, and utterly unexpected consequences of human desires. …More