Ethics In Frankenstein

Playing God as a Fallen Angel

As scientific progress continues to charge forward at an increasingly rapid pace, the ethical implications of certain areas of research have become increasingly blatant. Stem cell research is a discipline of science that attempts to procure human stem cells in order to develop new ways to treat various diseases. Stem cells are cells that have not become specialized for a certain role in the body yet and are thought to hold the key to solving countless physiological problems; the downside of researching the cells comes from their origin, which is most often a fetus, and even after technological developments allowing for non-fetal cells to be used, the moral implications have still been debated by many. The ethical

Victor is desensitized to the typical reverence one may hold for the dead, considering “a churchyard… merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm” (Shelley 171). Though he is handling one of the most somber and serious matters in human existence itself, Victor is entirely numb to any sentiment or respect the typical person has for the dead. In a similar vein, stem cell researchers must force themselves into this stoic and unfeeling state before performing their work, or else be riddled with distress while they fiddle with human parts. Victor, in his eagerness to create life from death, scours the graveyard for supplies, asking himself “Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay?” (Shelley 173). Victor may have enough self-awareness to recognize the reprehensible nature of his actions, but not enough to actually put a stop to them. Just as Victor is, stem cell researchers are conscious of the moral objections to their actions, yet they still plow ahead with their

At the success of his experiment, Victor’s perspective towards his creation immediately takes a left turn, changing from hopeful optimism to a state of torment and fear brought about as a product of his toils. Though the ramifications of highly experimental stem cell research such as tetraploid complementation are unknown as of today, their excitement as of recent is still analogous to the hopefulness Victor possessed before the tragedy that befell him. In response to the creature’s murder of Victor’s younger brother, he laments “But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolation” (Shelley 196). Victor may not have wrung his brother’s neck with his own hands, but upon realizing that the monster had done so, he is wracked with guilt as if he had. Although he is hounded with regret upon seeing the damage the fiend can inflict, Victor once felt a sense of excitement at the prospect of his findings before they truly manifested themselves, perhaps foreshadowing what may be to come in the process of stem cell research. Stem cell