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Is unwinding murder?

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The unlawful premeditated act of killing one human being by another.

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Unwinding is the process of dissecting or harvesting a child's body parts to be transplanted into different recipients.

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The government is responsible for legalizing unwinding which means they are supporting the act of killing "unworthy" children between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. This law gives parents the permission to sign the unwind order if they believe that their child is not worthy enough to live, has reached their potential in life, is poorly behaved, or if they simply do not feel like parenting anymore. The government delegates the power of bringing unwinds to harvest camps and catching AWOL unwinds to the Juvey Cops. Once in the harvest camp, a team of surgeons "unwinds" or dissects the body and prepares each part for transplant. The act of unwinding is not just placed on one person; it takes many people to successfully complete the process, and all of these people can be held accountable for murder.

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Although every part of an unwind's body gets used for somebody else, what happens to their souls? How can someone debate that they are still living when the most important part of a person (the soul) is not with them? A soul cannot be divided into multiple different pieces, so it cannot possibly stay with the person once every piece has been dissected. The soul is what makes you, YOU. Once a person is unwound, they aren't themselves anymore, so that person is dead.

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Acknowledging Risa's flustered response, the lawyer tries to justify the act of unwinding: "The fact is, 100 percent of you will still be alive, just in a divided state" (Shusterman 24). If Risa really believed that 100% of her would still be alive, she would not be scared. However, the children in the novel are terrified of being unwound because it means they will die. The person, as they know themselves, will no longer be living. Even if their body parts are being kept alive through someone else, they will no longer fully be themselves.

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Just like how murder is an extremely awful act, unwinding can also be considered a very torturous way to die. The thought of being unwound is almost worse than the thought of death: "'You have the right to know everything that's happening to you, every step of the way.' 'What if I don't want to?' 'You will'" (Shusterman 288). The way that the harvest camps make children experience their own unwinding is sickening. Although they don't experience pain, the mental and emotional torture they put innocent people through is horrific. As if being unwound isn't bad enough, they have to watch themselves going through the process. I believe murder and unwinding can be viewed as similar in this aspect; both go one step farther than death itself to make the already terrifying fate even more unimaginable.

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Most, if not all unwinds, with the exception of tithes, do not want to be unwound. Once a person turns thirteen, all of their rights are stripped from them: "'Don't I have a choice in this?' But when she looks behind her, the answer is clear. There are two guards waiting to make sure that she has no choice at all" (Shusterman 24). Risa and the other unwinds have no say in their future; someone else decides it for them. Because it is someone else making the choice for the child, unwinding can definitely be qualified as murder. It would be different if a person decided for themselves that they wanted to donate their body parts, but that is not the case. These children are being killed against their will.

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In conclusion, I do believe that unwinding is murder. I do not think that killing a child for any reason, much less no reason, can be justified in any way. The government officials try to make it seem like they are not actually dying and that they're helping other people but either way, the person being unwound IS dying. They will no longer be themselves on this earth. The unwinds are running away and hiding from the Juvey Cops because they are so terrified of being unwound. This in itself should be an eye opener that unwinding is completely immoral. The fact that whoever is in control over the child has the final say on whether they die or not makes it murder... one human being essentially choosing to kill another one. I hope I have made my argument clear that unwinding is murder.