Cloning in general has been a great achievement in the history of science; giving benefitial results on genetics, biology and other fields. The play "A Number" by Caryl Churchill presents the idea of "human cloning" and all the consecuences that it would bring to the society including a dramatic change in its definition of uniqueness, individuality and the value of life. Human cloning is a very controversial issue, people wonder on whether or not it would be ethical to clone a person giving part of his identity to someone alse. This play tells the story of a man call Salter who made a lot of mistakes with his wife and his son; wich resulted with her wife comiting suicide and his son been cloned and sent away. Salter's desire was to have a second chance with his son and the beginning of a new life, but unfortunatelly things didn't went as planned and this father ended loosing his son not only once or twice but three times!.
The opening scene on the play is an argument between B2, one of the clones and his father Salter. There is a lot of tension and we can see how the father and the clon have very different opinions about the other clones. B2 have a more humanistic view about the situation while he is arguing with his father. The author writes "you called them things. I think we'll find they're people" (Churchill 148). While the clon wants an explanation of the father's actions, the father is completely decided to sue and get money for the illegal creation of the other clones. As the play goes on Salter confronts the reallity of the damage that he had caused to his son B1, the original. Wich together with B2 started to hate the father, judging him for his foolfish decision that as a consecuence destroyed completely the life of B1; making him a very frustrated and agressive person.
This play address a lot of issues, one of them is the questioning of whether or not human cloning should be considered ethical. In the second part of the play we see an argument between the original son and his father; in which B1 asks for an explanation of the actions of his father. The author writes "you sent me away and had this other one made from some bit of my body some" (Churchill 162). We can see all the frustration that the original son felt when he finds out that his father was loving more a copy or clon of him than him self. Eventhough the father treated well B2 he wasn't sincere at any time about all this tragic situation. He invented that his wife and the first son had died in a car accident, when the truth was that the mother had commited suicide and the other son had been sent away. There is enough prove to realize that human cloning is not an ethical procedure at all, because it occasionated not only the suffering of B1 but the frustration of B2 when he finded out who his father really was.
A second issue or question that this interesting play wants us to think about is whether or not killing somebody or in this case killing the clone B2 was the solution to all the abuse that B1 had come through. Because of all the desperation that B1 felt to see his life taked away by somebody alse; he decided to kill his "brother-clone" B2 to make his father pay some how for everything that he did to him. When the father finds out he was very sad because he loved B2 much than his original son. The author say "your son dies you want his body, you want to know where his body last when he was alive, you can't help" (Churchill 185). We can see the rejection of the father for the action of B1, he needed to know where the body of his son B2 was. The father was sure that this act of B1 was because of jealousy and hate to B2; there was no hate for the other clones "he is the only yo hated because I loved him, I don't love the others" (Churchill 187). Eventhough B1 has got some kind of revenge for all the suffering he went through, he couldn't continue living seeing all the other clones and remembering all the things that his father did. B1 ended commiting suicide. We can assume that killing B2 wasn't the right thing to do; it just made everything worse, making B1's life more miserable leaving him with the only choice to killing him self.
At the end of the play the author is very frustrated and sad because he had lost his son B2. He realized how bad was everything that he did and all the danger that he caused. At the last part of the play he had the chance to meet one of the other clones call Michael, and what he found out was a very big surprise. This clone had a very wonderful life, a wife and a kid. He wasn't bothered at all that he had more clones of him self. The author writes "and you're happy you say are you? you like your life? I do yes, sorry" (Churchill 199). We can see how this clone was completely happy and sucessful in his life, wich some how make salter feel very sad and depressed. He was really sorry for what had happen to his other two sons "I miss him so much, I miss them both" (Churchill 199). We can conclude that the father was whishing that things had ended differently, he wanted to change his actions and the most important he wanted his son back.
In conclusion, this play help us to understand that science and technology can not replace the live of a human being or erase all the bad things that we did in our lifes. Human cloning is just a threat to the uniqueness and singularity that exists in every human being; which made them who they are. Scientists and researchers have to realize that technological advances should not be put over feelings and ethical principles because as the same of the play the consecuences may be the ending of the life of one or more human beings.
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