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Stem Cell Research In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Frankenstein Mini Research Paper: Stem Cell Research
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein she brings in an element that had never been seen before, life returned to the dead. Back then, it was a completely fictional novel with nobody dreaming that it could happen. Electricity was still a basic concept so when Mary Shelley decided to use electricity as the driving force in the creation of life by Victor Frankenstein, the book was in serious question. Today however, the replication of life is very much possible despite huge controversies over whether or not it was right. Today, modern scientists are looking at new developments for stem cell research which mainly include treatment for certain diseases and illness. However, the replication of life itself, …show more content…

He was certainly on the right track when he used electricity. Today, electricity is also used the in the process of stem cells. “The process of therapeutic cloning then involves taking those cells and fusing them, with a jolt of electricity, to an ovum whose DNA has been removed” (Chung, Eum, Lee). Also, much like modern day, the question arises. Is the creation of life from nothing ethical? Playing God takes a huge tole on Frankenstein and makes him question if what he did was right. Today, people question if it is right to take a life away to give life to something else or if it is right to create life such as Dolly the sheep. Cloning has been a major source of debates on whether or not it is right, that being said, Frankenstein does not see his mistakes until after what he has done. He realizes that it was wrong to play with life like that and begins to try and atone for his mistakes by hunting down his creation. Today, huge controversies of sprouting and people like Eric Meslin seriously questioned techniques used by the scientists related to stem cells. “How do you know when an embryo is dead?” (Robin, Barnett). This however, has been solved as scientist began to use already dead embryos. However, they were cautioned by right-to-life campaigners. “In theory if an embryo is obtained ethically and a stem cell can be derived after the embryo has died naturally, then that will remove all ethical

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After reading about therapeutic cloning, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is no different than what researchers are trying to do with ES cell research. The difference in the process is that the egg is penetrated, without destroying it and the nucleus is removed with the host DNA and replaced with a nucleus from the cell of the donor that requires the ES cell for therapy. At that point the egg is left to develop into a blastocyst using the donor DNA and the process of extracting the inner cell mass to cultivate the stem cells that are genetically compatible with the

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To begin, in the first story "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley it is about the Dr. Frankenstein who is creating his monster. This passage is Frankenstein talking to another person about the creation, but not fully telling him what he has made. This creation is a breakthrough in the science world in this quote it shows how he thinks this is a major break through, "After days and nights of incredible labor and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless

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In Mary Shelley’s 19th century novel, Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is noble in his effort to help mankind. His scientific Prometheanism is initially meant as a good thing, but has serious negative consequences. Victor wants to bring life back to dead matter so humans, in theory, would not have to die. Similarly, in today’s world, scientists and doctors continually and nobly pursue advancement in the medical world to generate new treatments for sick patients. For example, the medical community today is pursuing embryonic stem cell research to discover cures for diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes.

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The topic of Dr Frankenstein playing God can be related to the current day issue of abortion laws. Creating life should just be the act of God and taking it away is in the same context. Twenty years before Shelly published "Frankenstein" Luigi Galvani discovered that electricity could make a dead person's muscles twitch and simulate some type of life. This portrays the belief that reanimation is possible. The common belief of Dr Frankenstein playing God in this novel can also be portrayed as an issue between all religions.

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Mulkay expressed that articles had written had focus on the similarity between embryo researchers and Mary Shelley 's scientific villain. Based on the articles, readers believed that the the scientists are dangerous and must have a limit over them. This connect back to my thesis is that in Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein went overboard into creating the monster as it came to life by using science and the monster threatened society. As he misused science, he went over the limit into creating another human being with dead human parts. In Brave New World, the D.H.C and other scientists are misused science for cloning and conditioning human beings as they used scientific experiment.

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Stem cell research is used for the replacement of cells, tissues and to treat diseases. Victor uses this to create his monster from the bodies that he uses to create the monster. The research used in the story is the same research that is used now, about 200 years later. When comparing Frankenstein's monster to modern-day science they use cloning in the topic of classes.

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820 Words | 4 Pages

Victor Frankenstein spent his college life working on his so called project. “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an intimate body” (Page 35). Frankenstein is a hard working man that spent all of his time to do something that everyone thought was impossible to do and did not know the consequences to the act. He did not think over what would happen if he did bring this human that he has recreated back to life and how it would react.

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Thus, the company are aware of the fact that the clones function much like humans do but refuses to look at the

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However, if the embryos used are not ones that are left over from IVF, people are once again forced to choose between two moral principles: the preservation of embryonic life or the alleviation of pain and suffering. If embryonic stem cell research is pursued, more people will be helped than embryos destroyed, as the harms done are finite while the potential benefits are infinite. Therefore, embryonic stem cell

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1605 Words | 7 Pages

Although Shelley did not live to experience the wild inventions that have drastically evolved our world today, she did understand that the power of technology will go as far as we allow it to. This is demonstrated in the novel by scientist Victor Frankenstein whose sole focus goes into the extreme desire he feels to create life. He reads philosophers ideas and decides that “natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate; I desire, therefore, in this narration, to state those facts which led to my predilection for that science” (Shelley 26). The philosophers of this time merely discussed the possibility of man creating life that Victor was determined to make a reality. He is the prime example of the hard working people that have innovative ideas today; but they can also learn a lesson from him.

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1801 Words | 8 Pages

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is closely related to the current issue of genetic engineering. Shelley’s main character, Victor Frankenstein, is a scientific engineer who brings different parts of people’s bodies together to make a new creation. This new creation at first seemed good to Victor however, he was eventually overcome by it. Genetic engineering is not only gene manipulation; it is a desire to take parts of an organism and create a new living thing. Shelley was 17 years old when she wrote Frankenstein almost 200 years ago and although young, her perceptions of what is good or evil, what is beautiful or monstrous, are topics today that are discussed in relation to genetic engineering, gene manipulation and mutation.

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Ethics is one of America's biggest concerns when it comes to one of the most heated political battles in the United States, Embryonic stem cell research. Stem cells are cells that come from an embryo in the human body which is the earliest form of human life and under the right conditions in the body or a laboratory, stem cells can divide to form more cells called daughter cells. These daughter cells either become new stem cells or become specialized cells with a more specific function, such as blood cells, brain cells, heart muscle or bone. No other cell in the body has the natural ability to generate new cell types which is why stem cell research and the development of finding medical uses for stem cell are of great interest to the scientific and

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This basis came from the Catholic Church Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Method for obtaining embryonic stem cell that result in the death of the prenatal was gravely immoral, regardless of how the embryo's life begins. Kaufman (2001) “There was definitely a dark side to stem cell research and therapy, however there was hope. This hope maybe intricate to reach

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Shelley described this by depicting Frankenstein’s oversight, the monster’s suffering, and the potential danger of Walton’s expedition. These depictions connects with the ideas of cloning like neanderthal clone, cloned meat, and stem cell cloning which can bring unpredictable dangers. Like Frankenstein’s monster, the clone may endure an unintentionally difficult

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ENG-3U0 November 20 2015 Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Knowledge Throughout the course of their individual journeys, Victor Frankenstein’s extreme passion for gaining knowledge about creating life, Robert Walton’s curiosity to discover land beyond the North Pole and the monster’s eagerness to obtain knowledge about humans was the principal cause of each of their suffering. As such, In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous path which leads to suffering. Victor Frankenstein develops a keen interest in discovering knowledge about living beings which ultimately results in his personal suffering as well as others suffering. To begin with, Victor embarks on an assignment through combining body parts and following various

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