Why Is Frankenstein Unethical

Johnny Gambino

Mrs. Schroder

English IV Honors

December 8, 2016

Frankenstein: The Ethics Behind It

Technology has evolved over time, getting more and more complex. From the cotton gin helping farmers with their cotton to the mapping of the human genome, science and technology have improved the lifestyles of everyone on the planet. But as time goes on, ethical issues begin to arise. The act of “playing God” is the most frequent issue that comes up. An example of this act would be from the novel Frankenstein, written in the early 1800s, where the main character Victor creates a creature made up of a variety of corpses, bringing it to life. Scientists can now create what some people call “the perfect child” with the amount of technology the world

The other side of the argument in “playing God” especially with this novel, whether Victor actually create a human or was he acting in a God-like manner. The creature that he created is depicted as a multi corpse, built from random body parts that Victor found. The author, Mary Shelley, seemed to allude to what the future of biomedicine may hold. Now, scientists are transplanting various human parts such as lungs and livers, into other human bodies. But with doing this, scientists have been developing ways to regenerate one’s own body parts. This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by stimulating the body's own repair mechanisms to functionally heal previously irreparable tissues or organs (Regenerative Medicine). That means that if a part of the body is purposely destroyed through human activity like smoking, doctors would be able to give the humans that smoke medicine for their lungs to regenerate themselves. This connects with the question on whether was acting in a God-like manner or was he creating a human. Shelly’s Frankenstein also alludes to this topic in the coming future at that time. It comes to the question as whether a human given medicine to regenerate their own body parts still human. Is trying to push the human body beyond its limits ethical even though there is a future behind

Victor creates a human like creature that learns how to be a human although he is made up many corpse parts. Shelley introduces the idea that someone crazy like Victor Frankenstein would make a human like creature and have it act just like what happened in the novel. The creature started off in a good way but then as the story progresses, the creature kills loved ones of Victor, reminding him of his childhood on how people around him were dying all the time. Creating a creature brings up the concept of bring back the dead. An ethical issue arises here as this also alluding towards the Bible when God rose his son Jesus from the dead. Christians believe that the only being that can resurrect people from the dead is God himself thus Victor is “playing