Means to an Inevitable End

Although references to “carers”, “donors”, and “completing” are made in the beginning of the book, there is much ambiguity regarding the lives of those at Hailsham. The truth is revealed to the reader in Chapter 7 when Miss Lucy tells the Hailsham students, “[Y}our lives are set for you… before you’re even middle-aged, you’ll start to donate your vital organs” (Ishiguro 81). No longer can they be viewed as creative children growing up in a strange school. Now, the story forces the reader to face clones that will live lives full of limitations that will result in one thing, completion.

This perspective on information reminds me of the falling question. If a person is going to fall to their death, would they prefer to have their back to the ground or see when it is coming? The short answer is that it does not matter. Regardless of what is done, the result is the same, death, or “completion” in Ishiguro’s novel. Yes, the clones reveal a sense of humanity through their relationships, creativity, and appearance, but in the end, it does not matter. Their short lives will be lived, and their purpose served. To the people receiving their organs, there is an excitement for life, not a sadness behind death. Even their headmaster, Miss Emily, shares, “We’re all afraid of you. I myself had to fight back my dread of you all almost every day” (Ishiguro 269).

In Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro reveals a side of human nature that many people struggle to acknowledge. It stems from the ideal that the “ends justify the means”. Nobody ever wants to admit they are willing to make this trade of morality when another person’s life is at stake, but it is much easier when the life being sacrificed is artificially created. As Miss Emily explains, “[h]owever uncomfortable people were about your existence, their overwhelming concern was that their own children, their spouses, their parents, their friends, did not die” (Ishiguro 263). Once the option to save those important to them emerges, the means by which it is done no longer matters to society.

If the children are simply a means to an end, then why create an environment like Hailsham? Once the public knew about the means by which they received organs, they were not willing to sacrifice their own loved ones for the sake of clones. Instead, a select few took it upon themselves to show the world that these clones, if raised as children, could have souls. All that did is make the public feel better about themselves for a short time. They can feel like a service is being done in the lives of the clones.  

Part of me wonders if the Hailsham upbringing is worse the alternatives. The children are encouraged to dream about things outside of their realm of possibility. In other places, clones are brought up in horrible conditions. They are not taught to learn or play, but rather are treated as they are to society, an incubator for their organs. However, this may be better than the Hailsham students who place themselves within a world they can never be a part of. Kathy may have held the baby and sang “Never Let Me Go”, but it was the false hope provided by Hailsham that provided her with something to hold on to in the first place. In my opinion, that is the greatest disservice of all.