Ethical Practices In 'Flowers For Algernon'

While reading Flowers for Algernon, the thing that stuck out to me the most was the ethical practices of the scientific professionals in the novel. I had been aware of this issue since the beginning of the book but it never really occurred to me until the press conference in Atlanta how wrong Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss were. At the convention in Chicago, Charlie learns that the knowledge of Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss is limited and they do not know as much as him. In fact Charlie says, “To hear him admit that both of them were ignorant of whole areas in their own fields was terrifying” (Keyes, 149). I am aware of the fact that there is no person that truly knows everything, but, like Charlie, I was was taken back to know that they

He also said that before they test humans on this sort of excitement, they should test several animals like chimpanzees or dogs. My only question is, why on earth did someone not knock some sense into Profesor Nemur and Dr. Struass? They should have never went to the convention that early and they should have tried their experiment on another animal before the tried it on Charlie. This experiment is probably the experiment of their careers. You would think they would go the extra mile to make sure they do not ruin their reputations because if something bad does happen to Charlie or Algernon, they are going to be remembered as fools in front of the whole scientific community. I can’t even imagine what the people in the audience thought when Algernon escaped or when Charlie was in the papers as the “Morron Genius” (Keyes, 166). I do hope that nothing bad happens to Charlie but I want to see Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss fail. These conflicting thoughts raced through my mind as I read this book. I am enjoying this book very much and cant wait to see what