Why Should Frankenstein Scare Humans From Pursuing Scientific Research

How scientific research in today’s world expresses the true meaning of Frankenstein

Even if humans possess the power to do something, does it necessarily mean that they should? Mary Shelley's book Frankenstein shows how people who pursue power within research will have a lot of bad consequences. Why should Frankenstein scare humans from pursuing scientific research that defies the laws of nature? Victor Frankenstein created his creature because he was interested in and wanted to do it for the sake of scientific research. He did not exactly know the consequences that would come as a result of his creation. Cloning human beings, using biomedical enhancements, and making GMO’d foods is the type of technology that is being used today. No one

Biomedical enhancements have been used for a long time in everyday life and in sporting events, such as the Olympics, as “Ancient Greek athletes swallowed herbal infusions before competitions. The Egyptians brewed...Viagra at least 1,000 years before Christ… [and] European nations began adopting anti-doping laws in the mid-1960s, and the Olympic Games began testing athletes in 1968” (Mehlman 1). Biomedical enhancements have been used by Ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Steroid make sports unfair, which resulted in the European nations making anti-doping laws for athletes. Another reason that biomedical enhancements should scare humans is saving the youth. The youth of the world is very vulnerable to biomedical enhancements, which is shown by “Another vulnerable population is children...consume powerful, potentially dangerous enhancement substances” (Mehlman 2). Legitimizing these biomedical enhancements would make the youth of the world very vulnerable to these dangerous substances. They don’t understand the everlasting effects of the enhancements. The last reason that biomedical enhancements should scare humans is the true motivation for doing the research is not what it should be, which is explained by “...research focused on enhancement, rather than on therapy…” (Weckert 1). In a lot of cases, research for enhancements is not focused on therapeutical purposes, but is rather conducted for the sake of research. Victor Frankenstein believed that it was important to do research for the sake of research and not for any other reason. Mehlman explains that “Individuals may be vulnerable to harm not only from using enhancements, but from participating in experiments to see if an enhancement is safe and effective... [and] designed to ensure that the risks of the research are