The Ethical Predicament In The New Scientific Era

As a celebrated contemporary Japanese-English author, Kazuo Ishiguro(1954 ~)has been honored as one of the Three Migrant Giants in British literature world. Never Let Me Go, a science fiction about the human cloning and organ transplantation, has received international acclaim in the literature world since it was published and shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005. This novel describes the impact of advanced biomedicine on human society, and discusses the two most eternal themes – existence and humanity. From the perspective of ethical literary criticism, this paper illuminates the ethical predicament of human cloning and human being in Never Let Me Go. The whole paper can be divided into five chapters:Chapter One is an introduction, which briefly introduces the life and creation experience of Kazuo Ishiguro, analyzes the relevant domestic and international research status on Never Let Me Go, as well as systematically illustrates the research method of this novel – the ethical literary criticism.Chapter Two discusses the ethical predicament faced by human cloning such as Kathy.H through the analysis of the particular ethical environment they are in. The human society depicted in the novel is an anti-Darwinism world where the existence of human cloning and the function of organ donation have been accepted by ethical values. However, Hailsham is a pseudo-Eden for clones, objecting to these ethical values, is yet controlled by mainstream ethics consciousness. This chapter analyzes the ethical predicament of Kathy and other clones through the analysis on the contradictoriness of the ethical environment of human society and Hailsham.Meanwhile, the clones’ desire to live is expounded through the ethical consciousness of Kathy which changes when the ethical environment alters.Chapter Three focuses on the changes in the ethical identity of human cloning and human being. Through the analysis on clones’ original mystery and the identity as“others”, this chapter gives further discussion about “whether the human cloning is human”. Meanwhile, the organ transplantation of human cloning has an great impact on human being’s personal identity, leading to the alienation of human being. At theend of this chapter, the author reveals the difference of emotional awareness and moral concepts of Kathy and other human cloning when their ethical identity changes.Chapter Four mainly analyzes the ethical selection of human cloning and human being, using Kathy and Emily as examples respectively. Through a series of struggles,human, in the end, choose to consider human cloning as heterogeneous due to their instinctive desire of existence. Whether to admit the humanity of human cloning has trapped human being into the dilemma between complying with moral principles and pursuing personal desire. After they have been informed of the truth about donation,Kathy and Tommy give up their self-pursuit and choose to proceed to donate because of the sense of obligation. When facing the choice of life and death, human cloning determinedly chooses to bear the responsibility corresponding to their ethical identity,which is a prominent manifestation of humanity. Through the description of the ethical consciousness of the human cloning, the author criticizes self-centered human’s behaviors of abusing technologies and violating the nature.Chapter Five summarizes the main ideas. Based on the ethical literary criticism theory, this paper analyzes the ethical predicament of human cloning and human being in this novel and shows the reflection and introspection of Kazuo Ishiguro on the existence of human beings and social ethic, which embodies the moral instruction of literature and author’s strong sense of duty and generates a new perspective for the study on the works of Kazuo Ishiguro.