Great chapter, Rachel! I like how Lois refused to admit that she was bothered that both mother and daughter opened up to Clark when she couldn't get diddly out of either of them, much less a "But I like you!" from the child. And how Lois kept musing on how little she'd seen when looking directly at Clark for so long. And don't you think that Clark will pick up on Lois's stuttering and wonder what's wrong with her?
But that last bit almost did me in. You've presented us with a terrible moral dilemma. My head agrees with Patrick, who basically said that good results can't come from evil deeds. But my heart agrees with Mrs. Logram, who is so very thankful that her little girl is hale and hearty and runs around the yard and climbs trees and gets into all kinds of trouble. I want to say that I would not consider trading someone else's extreme pain for my child's life. I want to say that it isn't worth it to destroy one life to save another. And from a strictly moral viewpoint, it isn't.
But others don't feel that way. Our country has been debating the fetal stem cell research question for years without resolving it. Is it acceptable to destroy one life to try to help another? Doesn't that lead to fetus factories and stem cell gleaners picking off the best cells and dropping the remains into a hole in the ground? Or does it give us a better quality of life for those who would otherwise have no chance at life?
It's a hard question, and the way you've posed it here helps us to understand how Logram could be so cold-blooded with Kal-El. He had to be cold-blooded. He couldn't view his experimental subject with compassion. Before he even entered into this hellish experiment, he'd decided that Superman's life was not worth as much as his daughter's life. And he never considered the possibility that Superman might - probably wouldn't, but just might - have agreed to some tests, some experiments, some research, if the result had been the saving of lives.
But we don't know the long-term side effects of Logram's treatment. We don't know if Julia will develop other illnesses or symptoms resulting from her cure. And I can't accept that the theft of a man's freedom (not to mention his physical and mental health) can be justified, even to save a child.
And if you've never lost a child, it's impossible to imagine how it feels. I would wish that pain on no one. But at least you've given us a reason for all the horror, an ethical justification (no matter how slight) for the torture, for the inhuman treatment, for the deliberate injury, for the complete indifference to Kal-El's survival. I think this is the key to the whole story, and if this were the only reason you wrote this, Rachel, it would be worth it.
Keep it coming! I can't wait for the revelation scene. That's bound to be a double mind-blower.
