Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
[...] The sterility angle is just one anomaly in a science that is entirely incidental and almost totally invented. Human organs and other products harnessed from humans do not provide cures for cancer and all diseases, nor is it likely that they will ever do so, amongst other anomalies. It is imaginary science, and any attempts to reconcile it with real science is doomed to failure. [...]
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"imaginary science" - isn't that pretty much the definition for science fiction?
But this book barely qualifies for that distinction...
I still don't get why there is this suggestion that the sterility angle is an anomaly. Making the clones sterile isn't even science fiction, there are many ways it can be done (several involving no genetics at all). And there are many reasons why it might be done: in our world companies make GM crops infertile for commercial reasons. (
One can easily envisage these clones as a sort of GM crop.)
There are also examples in our world of human body products used for treating disease, including cancer. eg:
adult stem cells. (
In a society happy to grow clones, the use of embryonic stem cells would seem like a more obvious choice than adult stem cells, but maybe they know something we don't, or maybe the clones are genetically modified to make a difference.)
I'm not claiming this is the answer in the story (I still consider it irrelevant), but the scientific stretch to what we see in
Never Let Me Go seems very small indeed, certainly much less than a lot of other science fiction.