Flowers for Charlie “Those who use others are stupid but those who are used are even more stupid” (Internet). Charlie Gordon, the main character in Daniel Keyes’ book, Flowers for Algernon, ended up being in worse condition after undergoing a surgical procedure that was supposed to heighten his intelligence. Furthermore, the scientists unfortunately did not use ethics or take enough care in treating Charlie causing his now worse condition to be their own fault. Their greed led them to abuse and take advantage of Charlie, a very gullible and persuadable because of his low intelligence, and their mistakes led Charlie to his death, the ultimate sacrifice. The choice of using Charlie Gordon in Daniel Keyes’ book, Flowers for Algernon, for an intelligence altering surgery was unethical and biased. The first reason that Charlie should not have been chosen for the surgery is that it left him and his life in worse condition than when before the surgery. “ I dont want Miss Kinnian to feel sorry for me. Evry body feels sorry at the factery and I dont want that eather so Im going some place where nobody knows that Charlie Gordon was once a genus and now he cant reed a book or rite good” (Keyes 210). This quote illustrates that Charlie has …show more content…
Charlie did not even benefit that well from being a test subject in the experiment. Similarly, the treatment of Charlie was not very ethical because he was not treated specially for his mental state of disability. Lastly, this surgery did not provide enough benefits to even dent the weight of his unethical death. In the story Charlie was used because of his inferior intelligence and not treated well enough as he should have which led to his wrongful death. This story was fictional, but the use and abuse of human test subjects is