Examples Of Ethical Issues In Flowers For Algernon

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Chase Jans Putman Hours:3,5 13 November 2016 Argument Paper Ethics are the principles of doing something that a person goes by. In Flowers For Algernon a thirty-seven year old man named Charlie that has an IQ of 68 gets an operation to make him smarter without knowing very much of what is going on. Charlie Gordon 's doctors did not act ethically when they performed the surgery to make him smarter. In the story the doctors did not act very ethically when performing the procedure. The doctors did not explain what they were doing to Charlie. The reader can tell this because in the story Charlie is often puzzled about the tests that the doctors are performing (Keyes). For example he does not understand the Rorschach test at all. He thinks that there are hidden pictures in the ink while what they actually are looking for him to do is imagine a picture from the ink …show more content…

Before he may not have been as smart but he was happy. He also lost his job because of the operation. He was happy because he had friends and a job that he liked (Keyes). He was also happy with the job he had. For the patient, Charlie, it is going to take a great effort to get back to a normal life, in fact it may be impossible because he is going to move away now from where he is used to and this will greatly effect his quality of life. However ,others may argue that the doctors in Flowers for Algernon were ethical. The doctors did tell Charlie some of what they were doing yet not all. For example, at first he did not know why he was racing Algernon, the mouse. Others may also say, at least he got what he wanted, to be smart for a little while, therefore his quality of life was not affected greatly. However he at least felt like he was liked by his friends before he was smart enough to realize that they weren 't actually his real friends. So infact ,his quality of life was effected by the