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Air Pup Ethical Issues

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If you missed it then that’s really a shame for you! The one time showing of An Experiment with an Air Pump took place this last Monday and it failed to disappoint. A play packed with comedy, tragedy, ethics and centuries old gender issues rocked the classroom of Olin 258B.

Set in the same room in 1799 and 1999, the play connects the arrival of two new centuries with the current ethics of the times. In 1799, the ethical issue arises over the acceptability of dissecting human corpses. By contrast, in 1999 a different ethical issue arises over the use of embryos in stem cell research. These issues are able to cause a myriad of responses from audience members of the play based on their own backgrounds and how they feel about each issue. The ethical issues presented in An Experiment with an Air Pump have no proper answers and here is where the play steps into its own. By forcing the audience to pick a side of the ethical argument, they can choose to side with a character who represents their own view, both at the turn of the 19th and 21st century. In fact, even the reviewers of this play when discussing it couldn’t …show more content…

By doing this, the play using the comparison of the two scenes to show that while the setting may have changed, the issues at hand have not. Despite what the audience may initially believe, the difference the two time periods are smaller than it seems. In both scenarios, issues of gender, scientific ethics and family dynamics shape how the characters interact with each other and the world.

An Experiment with an Air Pump is an excellent play in which nothing is certain, not the character’s emotions nor the audience’s. The only thing that can be concrete about this play is that it is an excellent masterpiece combining both art and science that everyone should either see or

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