Hrm. Hrm.
Does the science hold up?
OK: we still read War of the Worlds, because even if the science doesn't work any more (or didn't even work then), the story has things to tell us about colonialism, culture clash, the personal and mass response to disaster, etc.
So I agree with everyone here who has correctly pointed out the scientific and technological and social difficulties with this story--a society that uses biometrics for tracking/purchasing has to figure out a way to deal with widespread body harvesting; was there any reason to set this story on space stations?; they've conquered organ rejection but nothing like organ growing?; why are they keeping "donors" alive and not just cutting them up and freezing them?; etc. But, like reading War of the Worlds when we no longer think Mars has aliens, all of this set-up is just the gimme--it's what you have to buy into to get on with the rest of the story.
(That said, I think this story has an awfully expensive buy-in.)
What do we get if we buy in?
Like Peevester and matweller, I think this story is best approached as melodrama. Or rather, as Commedia dell'arte, with the classic figure of Il Dottore (the doctor) trying to keep apart the lovers. Actually, that's all I got--where's Harlequin and Punchinello? I I guess we could say it's a fable of love lost: he goes away, she gets him back in pieces, he's not how she remembered him/imagined him. Or a story of inequality and the need for laws against organ harvesting. I'll be honest: I'm not sure what we get if we buy in.
What's that title mean?
Maybe the title will help me. After some really shallow research, I'm tentatively going to say that the title is Esperanto, meaning something like "Brain in a glass jar." (Cerbo=brain, vitra=glass, ujo=vessel, jug. I think "un" should be "en," but I'm outside my language comfort zone, which honestly doesn't even cover English.) So we have a classic science fiction trope about disincarnate sentience (hands off--that's my new band's name) when the real commodity here is the opposite: non-sentient body parts. Can anyone use this?