There is a famous Buddhist story. Before Buddha was born, he saw hungry a tigress. It was starving, so it almost tried to eat it’s own cubs. Buddha wanted to help them, so he proposed that the tigress give up eating her cubs and eat Buddha instead.
He sacrificed himself. Why am I mentioning this? Because I’ve just read “Never let me go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. This controversial novel includes the ethical questions about cloning and organ donation. Humanity always (1)beefs up science and technology for a better future. However, if the progress always requires to sacrifice something, is it always ethical?
One of the main characters is Kathy H.who has a good career at the back and call of a donor. When she was a child, she and other members of her class lived in Hailsham, where they were (2)blocked off from normal society because they were clones and their final mission was to provide their organs until they died. They never thought of running away to avoid their obligation. They never thought of (3)blowing up the society which exploited them. They silently accepted their fate.
This tragedy affected me and made me consider what the aim of society is. The author, Ishiguro placed the story in England, in the late 1990s but the book published in 2005, probably he thought of avoiding obsolescence. Now, I’m living in Japan 2018. The story is fictional, but I felt realism as if it had happened in the real world. When I read the book “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari last year, I felt afraid that we humans can’t live without any sacrifices. However, It might be dangerous to continue living being unaware of the sacrifices we make.
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Title: Is Sacrifice Inevitable?
I’ve heard the famous Buddism story. Buddha before he was born, he saw hungry tigress. She was so starving, so she almost tried to eat her own babies. Buddha wanted to help them, so he proposed tigress that she should give up eating babies and eat Buddha instead.
He sacrificed himself. Why do I write now this? Because I’ve just read “Never let me go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. This controversial novel is including the ethics of clone and Organ donation. Human always (1)beefs up science and technology for the good future. However, if the progress always needs to sacrifice something, is it allowing on the ethics?
One of the main character, Kathy.H was a good carer who was(4) at the back and call of doner. When she was a child, she and her members lived in Hailsham where (2)blocked off from normal society. Because they were a clone of somebody, and their final mission was to provide their organs until die. They never thought run away to somewhere to throw away their obligation. They never thought to (3)blow up the society which exploitation them. They accept their fate silently.
This tragedy affects me to consider what is the aim of society. The author, Ishiguro placed the story in England, late 1990s. but the book published in 2005. but maybe he thought to avoid obsolescence for his strategy. Now I’m living in Japan 2018. The story was fiction, but I felt realism as it had happened real world. When I’ve read the book “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari last year, I felt fear that we, a human can’t live without any sacrifices. However, It might be dangerous that I continue to live lack of knowing what is an unawareness of sacrifice.
homework :
(1)beef up: Improve or make more substantial.
(e.g. “He beefed up his presentation with diagrams and statistics.”
(2)block off: Separate using a barrier.
(e.g. “The area was blocked off during the demonstration.”
(3)blow up:
3-1: Explode.
(e.g. “The terrorists said the bomb would blow up at 9 o’clock.”
3-2: Be destroyed by an explosion.
(e.g. “The car blew up but luckily there was nobody in it.”
(4)at someone’s beck and call: If a person is at someone’s beck and call, they are always ready to do things for them or obey orders to please them.
(e.g. “Parents should not be at the beck and call of their children.”