Future Clones

Never Let Me Go made me seriously think about cloning. I don’t know if it was the novel itself or the class discussion, but for some reason I kept bringing up the topic with my friends and family and reliving the debate. At first, I was completely put off by cloning and its moral ratifications, but the more I thought about it, the more I really began to see the benefits – I started to come around to the idea, as long as there would be strict rules in place ensuring that it was kept humane (ex/ cloning an organ itself rather than an entire human body).

It is pretty clear that this is going to be an even fiercer and more prevalent debate for our future generations. This got me thinking about a novel I read a couple years ago in my Children’s Lit class, The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer. Since this novel is aimed at young adult and children readers I was initially shocked by the controversial ideas being thrown around by the writer – Farmer created a future world where people had completely embaraced the idea of cloning, either harvesting their clones organs in order to prolong life, or essentially lobotomizing them and using them for slaves. (A really interesting summer read if anyone is interested; I would definitely recommend it).



Basically, even though Never Let Me Go is aimed for adult readers, its content got me thinking about our future generation of readers. Novels such as The House of the Scorpion, are incredibly important – if the next generation, the generation that will probably be the greatest affected by this debate, is introduced to it in a narrative form at a younger age, they are earlier exposed to the controversial ideas and the implications of the technologically heightened world they are living in. This early exposure allows them more time to critically analize their social situations and form opinions and ideas regarding these emerging technologies. Although some people may argue that these ideas are too mature for young readers, if they are properly sugared by fiction, they could arguably be incredibly instrumental in the education of future young readers.