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The Ethics Of Cloning In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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James Joyce once said that “mistakes are the portals of discovery.” However, when it comes to the field of genetic engineering, specifically cloning, mistakes, or even discoveries, could turn out to be disastrous. Victor Frankenstein found this out when, in the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, he discovers the secrets to creating life which, some might say, led to a horrifying 8 foot tall creature. Nonetheless, cloning has become a lucrative field in the past twenty years since the first sheep was cloned. The process of cloning is essentially extracting tissue from an organism and growing the tissue within a laboratory by means of asexual reproduction. Bioethics have limited cloning to just animals such as a sheep as well as a monkey, but as technology has advanced, so it seems that humans are closer to being able to clone a human. Genetic engineering, specifically cloning, denies the dignity of human life because it crosses the ethical borders in which mankind is attempting to surpass God as a creator. Throughout time, as well as in literature, hubris has been shown when creating life in unnatural ways. In the …show more content…

However, much of the church’s teachings, such as gays not being acceptable, are outdated and frankly, I think that at the end of the day, if genetic engineering helps to fix a child be born correctly, then the procedures are good. Many parents begin to explain to their children how babies are made by stating “it all starts when two people love each other very much…” And that’s how God intended for us to create life initially, not in a laboratory filled with test tubes and growth hormones. When all said and done, the sanctity and dignity of human life is denied when created by means other than sexual reproduction and natural birth unless life is at

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and his monster make many questionable decisions. It is controversial whether or not his decisions are moral. In one part of the book Frankenstein's monster informs Frankenstein about the events that followed his creation. The sorrowful tale, and threats of harming his loved ones convinced Frankenstein to agree to create a female monster companion, and in return the monsters would live isolated from humanity. Uneasiness about the monster following through with his promise, being unsure if the new monster would obey the promise, and in fear of them reproducing, Frankenstein broke his vow and did not create a female monster (Shelly 2014, P.104-107 & P.120-123).

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The Dangers Of Responsibility Responsibility is the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone. Responsibility is something that every human needs. A lack of responsibility can be harmful to the person and the people around them and a plethora of responsibility can change a person 's life. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Shelley’s portrayal of Victor as selfish suggests that not taking responsibility can lead to pain, death, and the suffering of others as the reader sees in the novel which relates to today 's society of powerful countries not taking responsibility for the weapons that they create, and the damage that is revealed as a result.

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Beginning as an idea in recent centuries, genetic cloning has become an increasingly more prominent topic. One classic example of human cloning is described in Mary Shelley's notorious novel of the early 1800's, Frankenstein. In her novel, main character, Victor Frankenstein, develops a passion in his adolesence for philosophical creation of life. While working at a German University, he develops a human-like monster in the scenery of a laboratory. Similar to the chemical and biological ideologies presented in Frankenstein, modern dsy science communicator, Bill Nye, debates with other members of the scientific community regarding whether cloning should be allowed in the future.

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Many believe cloning is a perversion of science, and some are even concerned with a real life Frankenstein situation: “Reproductive cloning… could lead to a Dr. Frankenstein’s vision of lab manufactured humans. To me this is a perversion of science” (Ford 1). Furthermore, in Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein detached from the world as he became obsessed with his studies, diminishing his health. A similar thing could happen to scientists who clone if they decide that they are “playing god,” which can be dangerous for the scientists and the clones. Cloning is so controversial and causes an overbearing amount of stress for it to be befitting to the human mind, as Victor Frankenstein puts it, “If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy… those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful… not befitting of the human minds” (Shelley 50).

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The characters in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein discover that without control human creativity is dangerous. Discuss. The drive to conquer unknown territories, consider new possibilities and approaches to life and the desire to learn are alapail proposed as worthy pursuits in Mary Shelley’s Gothic classic Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. However, Shelley also highlights exactly what can occur when such pursuits and ambition are unchecked or approached without care and reflection.

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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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During the Romantic era, Mary Shelley wrote one of her famous book called Frankenstein, which became respected literature of Romantic era. Even though Frankenstein was created mainly to emphasize horror, it rather developed different point of views; it captured many audiences who sought for ideas of science and nature. Throughout the story, Mary Shelley mingled science, human emotions, and nature in order to create supernatural tale that can be understood despite specks of illogical ideas. To make the story as much as smooth as possible without any disbeliefs, Mary Shelley incorporated science and morality in order to enhance her story to be easily absorbed and felt.

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When it comes to scientific methods, there are a variety of ways in which one can reach their goal. Of course, there are certain rules that one must follow when it comes to scientific research. The foremost of these rules is to abide by a certain code of ethics. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein disregards the ethics of research, preferring to accomplish his goals without thoroughly thinking of the consequences that might arise from creating life for the dead. Of course, he wasn’t the only one ignoring the ethical guidelines of research.

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Throughout the novel, the main character Frankenstein, made many poor decisions that I would consider to be morally wrong and unethical. Frankenstein’s research and discoveries are ethically wrong because he was taking dead bodies from cemeteries, cutting off their limbs, and body parts to create a human like creature. He did not have anyone's consent to do this study causing it to be unethical, and he also should not be able to do this because he is playing the role of god. In the beginning of the book, Victor Frankenstein described to Walton that he had created a monster using body parts from a graveyard.

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Cloning at the gene level is acceptable and is done extensively in research areas. However, therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning raises skepticism and debate both in the general society and the scientific community. Among the argument raised is the possibility of cloning human beings; whether the individuals derived are seen as a complete human with the whole set of human rights attached to them. Body >>> Scientific Advantage <<< 2 PAR Fiester (2005) states that most of the animal cloning projects are driven by the goal of meeting human needs such as treatment of diseases, food production, and entertainment. However, there are animal cloning projects aimed at conserving endangered or

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Most people in our society, no matter what level of education that they may have, have heard of the cloning, specifically the cloning of Dolly the lamb, and have some notions regarding the idea of cloning humans. "The successes in animal cloning suggest to some that the technology has matured sufficiently to justify its application to human cloning" (Jaenisch et al.). However, not every agrees that human cloning is a something that should be put into practice (Hoskins). There generally seem to be two basic divisions on this issue: those who find it inappropriate and unethical, and those who find it a reasonable and necessary step in the progression of scientific research (Lustig).

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Do you know that based on the scientific studies, 90% human cloning tuned out to be unsuccessful. Human cloning(modifying babies) is a process of producing new identical babies by altering their genomes. Some of studies show that scientists successfully cloned animals such as cows, Pigs, and sheep. For the past 3-5 years human cloning have a lot of debates and controversies between peoples. However Human cloning is dangerous for the new engineered baby and their moms, so it should be banned to prevent new disease, to constantly limit the population of dying human beings, and to stop unnecessary fees to modify babies.

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