"We certainly knew-though not in any deep sense-that we were different from our guardians, and also from the normal people outside" (69). So from what I can gather, they're being raised to donate vital organs to other people who need them. When they are still alive. So then this means that they'll die when they're still relatively young. That's so unfair, they'll never be able to get married, or have children, or die when they're 89. I honestly don't see how they can donate something and not die immediately after. But Kathy is talking about third and fourth donations, so some how in this world they've figured out how to survive with out vital organs for a time? Kathy later says that when the students bring up donations, the guardians become awkward, does this mean that they're also afraid of the students like Madame? More than anything, I want to know where these people come from. Are they taken from their parents as infants? Or are they something else entirely?