Pure

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

In a future world controlled by Purity, Lenni Hannix, about 16, lives
with her mother, Mara, scientist father, Leonard, and her longtime
nanny, Elyle, in Dawn, a community in Canada’s north. Full citizenship
in Dawn, one of a chain of Purity-established settlements stretching
around the globe, is dependent upon a person’s possessing pure,
unaltered DNA. While Purity still permits the genetic engineering of
plants and animals, humans whose DNA shows genetic engineering are
derogatively labelled “skidge” and, in addition to possibly being
sterilized, are subject to exile to the Beyond or are
“discontinued.” Officers from the Genetic Purity Council constantly
seek out suspected skidge, but Lenni, a student at the prestigious
Academy of Intelligence, appears immune from their investigations.
However, when she accidentally discovers that she can cure people’s
physical ailments with her drawings, and recognizes that her
“unnatural” ability will attract the Purity Council’s unwanted
attentions, she hides her healing power until she must publicly use it
to save Elyle’s life. Incarcerated by Purity, Lenni learns that her
mother, unable to conceive, had not only persuaded her scientist husband
to use his lab’s false womb to genetically engineer Lenni, but,
unknown to him, had also substituted another man’s superior DNA. With
the assistance of other skidge, Lenni is able to escape and seek freedom
in the Beyond. Cognizant that her healing power will allow her to
“cure” her fellow skidge, Lenni questions the morality of her doing
so.

Reflecting contemporary ethical concerns about genetic engineering,
Pure is an excellent read and highly recommended.