Can Eternal Life Be Ethical? Mortality and Immortality in Matthew FitzSimmons' Constance

Defining the Thematic Claim

In Constance, Matthew FitzSimmons presents immortality not as a triumph over death but as a corrosive force that devalues human life, erodes identity, and licenses murder. The novel's central thematic claim is that a finite lifespan—with its attendant risk, grief, and irreplaceable experiences—gives existence meaning. When cloning and consciousness transfer promise to cheat death, they also strip away the very reasons we cherish being alive. The quest for eternal life, far from being noble, becomes a justification for the worst kind of selfishness.

Tracing the Theme Across the Plot

Part One: Fear of Death Drives Con's Original Decision

Early in the story, Constance "Con" D'Arcy reveals that she purchased a clone from Palingenesis out of fear of death after a car crash left her bandmate Zhi Duan in a persistent vegetative state and killed two other friends. This fear is understandable—she is a young musician confronting her own mortality head-on. But the decision is also a retreat: instead of grappling with grief and the fragility of life, Con outsources her survival to technology. The irony is that the clone does not protect her from emotional pain; it merely postpones her reckoning. When her original dies and Con is "refreshed," she struggles with depression, guilt, and a sense of dislocation. She feels like a copy, not a continuation. The immortality she bought has not made her freer; it has alienated her from herself.

This is reinforced by the physical details of her new body. After the refresh, Con has difficulty swallowing pills, her knee doesn't hurt for the first time, and she feels like a "newborn." The very perfection of her cloned body—unscarred by the accident—feels inauthentic. Her original's decision to close her bank account leaves her stranded, symbolizing how the cloned self is cut off from the history and relationships that defined her. The freedom from death comes at the cost of continuity.

Part Two: Abigail Stickling's Immortality Project Becomes Murder

The most extreme embodiment of the theme is Dr. Abigail Stickling, Con's aunt and the co-founder of human cloning. Abigail suffers from Wilson's disease, which initially made her uncloneable—yet she eventually solved the mind-body problem, allowing consciousness to be transferred into a younger body (her niece's, in fact). To achieve this, Abigail orchestrates a series of murders: she and her clone (Cabigail) kill Vernon Gaddis, Brooke Fenton, the original Constance D'Arcy, and others. Their twisted logic is that killing a person who has a clone is not murder, because the consciousness lives on.

Part Three: Con's Final Rejection of Immortality

By the end of the novel, Con makes a deliberate choice to break the cycle. In Chapter 35, she refuses to clone herself again. She also rejects the opportunity to transfer her consciousness into a younger body, even though she knows the mass in her brain will kill her. Instead, she chooses to face death, recording music and enjoying ordinary moments with friends. This decision is the thematic climax: mortality, for Con, becomes a gift. She values her finite time precisely because it is limited.

Earlier, in Chapter 33, Con chooses to let Cabigail die rather than save her with an antidote. She realizes that her aunt's ruthlessness must be stopped, and that to offer her eternal life would only extend her capacity for harm. When Con later presses the self-destruct button for the underground facility—rather than fleeing—she symbolically destroys the technology that enabled immortality. Her final arc solidifies the novel's claim: true humanity lies not in living forever but in living meaningfully, with all the vulnerability that entails.

Character and Symbol Connections

Characters

Constance "Con" D'Arcy: Her journey from fearful clone-buyer to defiant mortal illustrates the thematic arc. Con's tattoos—an intricate sleeve encoding her family history—serve as a permanent record of identity and memory that cannot be transferred. When she lets her body age and refuses cloning, she embraces that inscription.
Abigail Stickling / Cabigail: The aunt and her clone represent the dark side of the immortality quest. Their willingness to kill for "progress" shows that eternal life, pursued without ethical restraint, becomes a justification for atrocity. Their incinerator literalizes the disposability of bodies in their worldview.
Vernon Gaddis: The co-founder of Palingenesis mirrors Abigail in his own way. In Chapter 13, he confesses to Con that he was "evangelical about cloning" until his own death in a plane crash opened his eyes to the "toll that being a clone took." His arc shows that even true believers can come to see immortality as unethical when they experience the disorientation firsthand. Read more about Vernon Gaddis →

Symbols

Purple Artificial Christmas Tree: Con rescues this tree early in the novel, but it fails to lift her mood. The artificial tree is a lifeless imitation—much like a clone. It looks real but lacks roots, scent, and life. Her attachment to it initially suggests a longing for something authentic in a world where even people can be manufactured.
Incinerator: In the hidden lab, the incinerator is used to dispose of clone bodies. It reinforces the theme that for those who pursue immortality, physical existence is just waste. When Con chooses not to save Cabigail and later destroys the facility, she rejects that worldview.
rDogs: These robotic sentinels are another example of life reduced to function. They kill without conscience—a mirror of the way immortality technology allows humans to disregard the sanctity of life.

Complexity and Contradiction

The novel does not present a simple binary. Con herself acknowledges that her original's decision to buy a clone came from a very human fear. And Abigail's discovery of consciousness transfer is a genuine scientific breakthrough—one that could theoretically allow a person to experience centuries of growth and learning. Yet the narrative consistently shows that such power corrupts utterly. The contradiction lies in the fact that while immortality seems desirable, it actively destroys the very things that make life meaningful: relationships, risk, mortality, and the knowledge that time is short.

Furthermore, the novel complicates the idea of "personhood." Detective Darius Clarke and Levi Greer represent legal and social battles over whether clones should be considered people. By the end, the Supreme Court rules that clones are persons, but that ruling feels too late for the lives Abigail has taken. The theme suggests that technology cannot outpace ethics; immortality without wisdom is a curse.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does Con decide to stop cloning herself at the end of the novel?

Con stops cloning herself because she recognizes that the pursuit of eternal life has only brought suffering—to herself and others. She chooses to embrace her finite existence, finding meaning in music, friendship, and the ordinary moments that mortality makes precious. Her choice affirms the novel's thematic claim that death gives life value.
How does Abigail Stickling justify murdering people who have clones?

Abigail argues that "a person with a clone cannot be killed" because their consciousness lives on. By this logic, the physical body is merely a disposable vessel. The novel rejects this rationalization, showing that it enables cold-blooded murder and strips victims of their unique histories. The incinerator in her lab reveals the horrifying disregard for bodily life that her philosophy permits.
What role does the purple artificial Christmas tree play in the theme of mortality?

The tree is an artificial imitation of something natural—much like a clone is an artificial imitation of a human being. Con rescues it but finds it unsatisfying. It symbolizes the emptiness of attempting to replicate life without its authentic cycles of growth, decay, and death. Just as the tree cannot bring real joy, a cloned existence cannot replicate the full human experience.
How does Con's experience as a clone challenge the idea that immortality frees people from suffering?

After being refreshed, Con feels disoriented, depressed, and alienated from her own memories. She struggles with swallowing pills and finds her body unfamiliar. Far from being liberated, she is burdened by the knowledge that her original died and that she is a copy. The immortality promised by cloning does not free her from emotional pain; it compounds it with existential confusion.
Why does the novel end with Con performing one song instead of pursuing eternal life?

The final scene—Con agreeing to perform a song at a party—emphasizes that meaning is found in embodied, ephemeral experiences. Music, like life, is transient; each performance is unique. By choosing to play rather than flee, Con embraces the vulnerability and beauty of a mortal life. The novel ends not with a promise of forever, but with the simple act of creating art in the present moment.

For further exploration, see the main Constance book page and character studies on Con D'Arcy, Abigail Stickling, and Detective Darius Clarke. Symbols such as the tattoo sleeve and the incinerator offer additional insight.