This time Claire is faced with whether or not she should save those who are her enemies. She chooses to work on a dangerous project with a sick vampire. She discovers that there is a plague facing the vampire race which could kill all vampires in 10 years. It has made it where the vampires are unable to "reproduce" by creating other humans into new vampires. To be honest, Claire struggled with this decision, and I feel that I would also struggle. In one sense, it would make humans the top predators again, (not to mention kill off the vampires that are big jerks!) but it would also kill off the vampires she has made as friends such as: Amelie, who as the top vampire continues to protect Claire, Sam, who is her roommate's grandfather and has more in common with humans than vampires, and Michael, who is her roommate (also Sam's grandson--I know weird right?) and friend. I would like to think that I would choose as Claire did, which is to work with a sick vampire to try to find a cure for the vampires. The question that arises from this is: can you kill off an entire race or species due to the fact that some in it is bad. For example, can you kill all dogs because Pit Bulls have attacked people? Can you kill all Pit Bulls for that matter? What about the ways people can be classified? Can you kill off people based on age, race, gender, beliefs, abilities, hair color, eye color, or height? The answer is absolutely not because when it comes to people, they exist on a spectrum. Not everyone has blonde hair and blue eyes. The even bigger question that all of these lead to is: what makes a person a person. Is it their DNA, their abilities, their development. To sum up why those arbitrary things do not explain it, Abraham Lincoln once said:
"If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B.—why may not B. snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A?—
You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.
You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.
But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest; you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you."
This is important because it shows that there is not a single thing that makes a person a person or more or less of a person.
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