"How maybe, after the fourth donation, even if you've technically completed, you're still conscious in some sort of way; how then you find there are more donations, plenty of them, on the other side of that line...how there's nothing to do except watch your remaining donations until they switch you off. It's horror movie stuff, and most of the time people don't want to think about it" (279).
Throughout the novel, I have been shocked by the idea that the organs were harvested while the patient was alive. This to me was a bit horrifying, but the thought of that does not compare to the situation that Kathy describes. I have trouble fully understanding what Kathy is describing since the concept of organ harvesting from clones is new to me. I suspect that the organs harvested after completion are vital organs that today are taken from patients that have died. Perhaps the clones are kept conscious so that the organs remain fresh; however, I cannot imagine such an inhumane process taking place. She talks about being conscious for more donations, watching as things are taken from your body until there is nothing left and the doctors "switch you off." Even the terminology is awful, how dying is described as being "switched off." This relates to Miss Emily's talk about how the students were seen as less than humans, as soulless scientific specimens that magically produced organs. The clones do not die; they "complete" or have to be "switched off." The author does not give much insight into the horrors of their donations, but this part really stood out to me as "horror movie stuff."
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