Essay

 Never Let Me Go has a clear argument that the clones' plight is not a stand-in for slavery. In the film, it largely focuses on questions about the clones' standing in society or their inherent humanity. There is a society within the larger one consisting of children who were created in a laboratory to be Donors. They have no parents in the sense we use the term. I'm not even sure they can be parents. They exist to grow hearts, kidneys, livers and other useful items, and then, sadly, to die after too much has been cut away.

The donors live within a closed world whose value system takes pride in how often and successfully they have donated. Then a new teacher arrives and tells them all a secret about who they are and why they’re there. They accept this. It is all they have ever known. The clones are unable to change their fates as organ donors, but their lack of free will affects many other elements of their lives as well. For example, Ruth never achieves her dream of working in an office, and Kathy gets precious little time with Tommy

Hailsham – and many other institutions like it strewn all over the world – is the place where “special” children are being brought up in a closed environment and a sense of absurd altruism. They are the clones that will help real humans live a full, long and happy life, something they don’t ever dare dream it would be possible for them. 

All three, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy submit to their fate without even thinking of questioning it: they’ve been programmed to think that this is what life should be and they see no point of rebelling against this established order of things. Watching them is like watching meek sheep on the conveyor belt in the slaughter house: the same feeling of shock and powerlessness takes over the viewer.

The only faint glimmer of hope comes when they learn that there is some form of special treatment: if a couple can prove they’re really in love, they can get a “deferral,” a few years “off” until their next...