| Man has been long desired to create human beings on his own, which is also rendered in literature. The man-made beings, like the monster in Frankenstein, the artificial Homunculus created in a glass phial in Faust and Asimov’s robots, all express the wish for the transformation and creation in varying degrees. With the revolution of science and technology, especially the biotechnology and genetic engineering since 1950s, human cloning has gradually become one of the prevailing materials of science fiction. Human cloning refers to the beings that are created by somatic cell nuclear transfer which is the asexual reproduction. Science fiction of human cloning thus means the science fiction about this new type of creation with "genetic copy". The traditional definition of human has changed as the development of science and technology, human beings have transformed from the natural-born humans into non-pure bio-humans involved by technology. Moreover, the new beings including cloned humans will make the relationships between science, ethics, society and persons more complicated. Not only does clone narration reflect the contemporary alienation of technology and materialization of human beings by scientific fantasy, but also it concentrates on the potential crisis and overall influence on ethics by allegorical stories about scientific future and our own selves. The clone narration excavates problems about family relationship, concept about ethical relation, morality, religious beliefs, politics, economics and social order, etc. Therefore, the ethical reflection and construction seem more important under the high-tech context.With the aim to delve into the ethical insight and ethical influence of human cloning, this dissertation applies "ethical literary criticism" as its main methodology, with three mian terminologies of "natural choice", "ethical choice" and "scientific choice". It will concentrate on various ethical issues embedded in clone narration, interpreting the scientific allegories and moral metaphors. Selecting sixteen classic novels or bestsellers from Europe, America and Asia as its research objects, the dissertation takes the identity of human cloning as its main line and expounds ethical problems in accordance with different ethical situations, namely human cloning with natural-born humans, individual human cloning with groups of human cloning, and utopia of human cloning. The main parts are the following four chapters.Chapter One elucidates the relationship and influence between the development of biotechnology, genetic engineering and science fiction, and summarizes the background of science fiction of human cloning as well as the identity features of human cloning, supplying the research with basic theories. Firstly, it makes a literary review of Frankenstein which is a regarded as the moral allegory under the context of western industrial revolution. Though it is not a science fiction about human cloning, the "modern Prometheus" explodes the myth that humans are created by God, thus making the admonition of "understanding yourself" as a significant theme in the technological era. With the ethical reflection about "Frankenstein Syndrome", the dissertation further discusses the clone narration under the ethical context of high technology. Modern machine, knowledge and technology have blurred the boundary between subject and object, deconstructing, transforming and deriving subject from them. Therefore, the cloned humans who are almost human form a new type of Sphinx myth. With the analysis of In His Image, Human Cloning and Clone, the dissertation points out the main ethical problems to be discussed. Generally speaking, human cloning has subverted the value system that human being is goal, exposing a contradiction between instrumental rationality and value rationality that arouses ethical apprehension.Chapter Two elaborates under the context where cloned humans and natural-born humans are coexisting, probing into the ethical chaos and identity dilemma of human cloning in human society. By the conflicts between "origins" and "copies", it goes on to criticize the Human Centrism. The novels of Blueprint and The Secret have similar plots that the cloning technology has satisfied human’s cloning complex, leaving an inharmonious life between copies and their origins. The "mother and daughter" relationship is an uncertain one, and there is an incestuous taboo in between, which makes the search of identity more difficult. Never Let Me Go tells a story of the cloned donators’life and destiny, which is narrated in the perspective of a human cloning who lives in Hailsham, a boarding school that is seemingly the same as human school. In fact, human cloning regarded as "the other" and the unhomely home both reflect an irrational technology. That the cloned humans complete their lives as their ethical choice is the tragic moment of the novel. Boys from Brazil, Bunshin and The Third Twin narrates with the life mystery and crimes as the main ethical lines, maintaining a point that ethical situation has close relationship with ethical identity and the living environment and education have great effect on later life. The conflicts between natural-born humans and cloned humans revealed in Cloud Atlas and Arresting Human Cloning can be illustrated as a master-and-slave relationship and hierarchical system in reality, which also figures out the difficulty of assimilation in the human society. Human beings have to reconsider the ethical choice for science and the defense of life dignity through the clone narration that human cloning is a form of human materialization and will violate ethical orders.Chapter Three explores under the ethical situation where individual cloned humans are coexisting with groups, focusing on the three novels of Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Cloned Lives and Nine Lives. Based on the analysis of pursuit of identity and humanity, the dissertation emphasizes on the alienation and the connotation of "copy" under the context of technology and culture. The reproduction of groups is different from individual copies, which gives rise to an eternal sameness, reducing human beings to simulacra and signs. The groups of human cloning also deconstruct the ontology of human beings, which arouses identity crisis at a severer level. Though the novels repeat certain themes as incestuous taboo, identity confusion and search for identity, the conflict between individual human cloning and the groups implies an importance to reconstruct the identity of human being, preserving the human value system. This dissertation not only excavates the sameness of human cloning, the deviation of traditional ethics and the reconstruction of identity, but also takes a further reconsideration of identity metaphor and the connotation and cognition of "copy". Created under the context of counterculture movement, the simulacra of human cloning dispel the biological variety and reveal the apprehension the mass culture.Chapter Four examines the utopia of human cloning based on the textual elaboration of Brave New World and Solution Three. The two novels express the wish for reconstructing ethical orders through ironic narration and criticism of an era of mass mechanical reproduction. In fact, the novels mentioned in the previous chapters all reflect certain structure and plot like utopian narration. Brave New World is a classic novel which depicts a consumption society ruled by advanced biology, where humans are alienated as numb simulacra, civilization is abolished and politics violates ethics. It finally imparts a warning that human society is doomed to extinguish if controlled by technology. Solution Three is a thought experiment written from a feminist perspective. In the novel, human beings are confronted with ecological crisis, thus hoping to establish a utopia where human cloning and homosexuals are the major constituents; however, the utopia fails to solve the ecological crisis. Although the two novels display a powerful society dominated by technology, they demonstrate in an allegorical form that the utopia of human cloning breaches the value ideals and moral norms of our times. Hence the dystopian theme in the utopian narration embodies an admonishment that human beings should not violate the bottom line of cognition and should obey human ethics and morality, maintaining a traditional family and society.Based on the research under three ethical situations, the dissertation ascertains the fact that the reflection and criticism penetrated in science fiction unveil the alienation of rationality as the contemporary ethical problem. Human beings have been alienated as materials by instrumental rationality; hence the nature of scientific choice is still centered on the ethical choice by human beings Cloned beings, different from robots, aliens or any other creatures, are the most similar creature to human beings both physically and psychologically. Human cloning is the technical product by genetic engineering as well as a subject who has ethical consciousness, thus making the identity uncertain with the double and the ambiguity. The production of human cloning brings about the identity dilemma and ethical horrors, resulting in an existence paradox for individuals. Meanwhile, the clone narration argues whether cloned humans have humanity such as rationality, ethical choice, moral judgment, emotions and creativity, which can be regarded as a mirror to introspect alienation of human beings, identity crisis and ecological crisis in the technical era.Science fiction of human cloning indicates profound functions of ethical instruction and humanistic concern. Any activities under the cultural context, including scientific choice, must insist on the human value and ethics; therefore, science fiction of human cloning purports the realistic and contemporary significance. With regard to the defamiliarized ethical situation in the texts, readers have to devote their cognition to the understanding between future world and human society, interpreting the allegorical prophecy, analogy, metaphor and criticism which are the forms of moral enlightenment for the forthcoming technical future. The multiple ethical perspectives help us to examine the ethical dimension for science, that is to say scientific choice should be dependent on ethical consciousness and the essence is still about ethical choice complying with universal ethical and moral standards. We are alarmed that any technical products that infringe the cognitive laws will incur opposites against human society. |
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