Ethical Issues In Frankenstein Research Paper

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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a precautionary story of uncontrolled scientific advancement at the expense of human and society. Mary’s argument is that scientific progress in not inherently good or bad but instead the fashion that it is applied can lead to catastrophe. When Victor Frankenstein sets out to artificially yield life he does not consider the ethical consequences of creating a monstrous being. From this logic, Shelley would also argue that cloning, while having great potential, should be avoided because of the net negatives it could pose to society. Shelley’s point is that technology is not a one-way street and that society as a whole should not eagerly jump into a process like cloning for the massive potential for destructiveness. …show more content…
In the case of the monster in Frankenstein, the monster has a threatening and hideous appearance that causes his to only mainly experience alienation and hostility from the world as a whole. To further compound that factor Frankenstein also casts away his creation, it gets to the point where the monster fully state this in a failed attempt to generate sympathy, “I ought to be thy Adam but I am rather the fallen angel” (Shelley 69). The relationship between the monster and Frankenstein is fictional however it gives a perfect glimpse into the situations that the creators of clones may face if they were to start cloning humans. Frankenstein’s monster is casted out due to appearance which to a degree is an unintended consequence and in comparison, cloning is not perfect either therefore it is likely that there may be some life altering unintended consequences that the clones might face. Already there are some underlying complications with the cloning process that does affect the life and health of the clones. The main genetic attribute effecting clone health is telomere length. Jie Xu and Xiangzhong Yang from the National Institute of Health explains that, “Many scientists propose the telomere as a "mitotic clock", whose length correlates with the number of cell divisions and indicates the molecular age of the cell (Xu),” therefore the shorter the telomere the more biological age the organism possess which will result in a shorter life and more health complications. The age of the source DNA determines the clones biological age at the start. It is unethical to deliberately create a human just for him or her to life out life with build-in health condition and deformities just from a cloning process. In addition, the cloning
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