I Am Legend Ethics

I Am Legend: A Cautionary Tale of Ethics and Experimentation
There were “six billion people on Earth when the infection hit” (Lawrence). One by one they fell; the virus hailed as a cure for cancer had become the undoing of mankind. The virus “had a ninety-percent kill rate, that's five point four billion people dead” They were the lucky ones, “the other five hundred and eighty-eight million turned into… dark seekers” (Lawrence). The dark seekers have abandoned their humanity under the influence of the virus, reducing them to an animalistic state. They have become vampire-like in nature, by avoiding the sunlight and preying on humans. In a rabid-like state they destroy all they encounter. These are the creatures that Dr. Neville is fighting

Alongside his only companion, Sam the dog, he takes on the critical task of using the antibodies in his blood to find a cure. In his basement laboratory, he performs experiments. In his desperation to save humanity, however, he loses sight of his own. In his experimentation on the infected who were once human, he is killing the very element he desperately wants to save. Neville’s fictional story is the basis for I Am Legend, a film that serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of genetic manipulation and the lack of ethics in scientific experimentation. The lack of ethics and mistrust of individuals in the scientific community shows through various scenes throughout the film; Robert demonstrates his lack of ethics as well as his lack of compassion by experimentation involving rats, which leads to his use of infected human subjects, he inadvertently kills the human test subject with little thought or remorse. Finally, Robert see the errors of his ways through the eyes of

The representation of science through science fiction does not accurately represent the behaviors of those involved in Bioengineering who have been shown as unethical, cruel, and heartless. Fictional slander can have lasting real-life consequences on how science and experimentation are perceived by the general public. Peter Weingart “analyzed 222 films” in order to understand perceptions of scientists in more fully. Weingart concluded that “modification of, and intervention into, the human body, the violation of human nature, and threats to human health” had are considered the most threatening and therefore shown most frequently in films. This is in stark contrast to reality where scientists are bound by law to avoid crossing these boundaries. Dr. Neville is not bound by any such laws as there is no authority to enforce