Genetic Manipulation In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Genetic modification is a controversial topic that often creates rifts between different people due to the questioning of its ethicalness. In Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein, a young, aspiring, scientist, Victor Frankenstein develops an obsession with the idea of the reversal of death and decides to bring a creature, created from pieces of dead bodies, to life. However, after he succeeds in his attempt, he questions his actions and believes he made a mistake in creating his monster. Modern day science shows that we will very soon be able to design babies before they are born and even produce children with three biological parents, scientific possibilities that give off a Frankenstein feel .The creation of Victor Frankenstein's monster, designer babies, and the production of children with three

Victor Frankenstein, a young, Swedish scientist and the protagonist of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, displays hubris when he decides to create a monster using dead body parts and electricity. He develops this idea and and acts on his emotions rather than truly thinking out his entire experiment and its ethicalness. His lack of preparation leads to him creating a creature he chooses to reject, leaving the creature to fend for itself, alone in the world. Frankenstein develops his idea of using electricity to bring a creature to life solely by witnessing lightning strike a tree, a common event of nature. His narration then states that “the catastrophe of this tree excited my [his] extreme astonishment; and I [he] eagerly inquired of my [his] father the nature and origin of thunder and lightning” (24 Shelley). The fact that Frankenstein's idea to bring a creature to life is inspired by seeing a tree shattered by lightning shows how unprepared