Malik
Charlie Gordon's doctors in the story "Flowers for Algernon" did not act ethically when they performed the surgery to make him smarter. Charlie Gordon did the surgery to become more intelligent and increase his very low IQ. His doctors were proud of their work, and didn't think ethically of the matter of Charlie's wellbeing. Ethics are developed standards of doing what's right over what's knowingly wrong. They have consistent reason for being ethical. The doctors did not act ethically when giving Charlie the surgery.
Ethics can also be virtues, like honesty and compassion, neither of which the doctors showed for Charlie. "...you have to fil in the blanks when confronted with an ethical problem. You have to rely upon reasonable assumptions."(Dobrin). They were never honest because they never
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Also, the mouse they had also done the surgery on, Algernon, was starting to show symptoms that his intelligence was declining. They were scared, knowing it would happen to Charlie, too. When he began to decline back down to his low IQ, the doctors no longer wanted anything to do with him. The Hippocratic Oath says, "Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks." As long as Charlie wasn't making them look good or becoming smarter, they wanted nothing to do with him.
Ethics are needed in the world we live in of high rank egos, and pressure to do "what's cool." The doctors in "Flowers for Algernon" were pushed by fame and medical history make an ethical decision on whether or not to do the surgery on Charlie. They did it regardless of the risks, and never informed Charlie of them, either. They based their study around their egos and advancing science in unnecessary terms, rather than helping those who needed