Analysis Of Leon Kass's The Wisdom Of Repugnance

Victor Frankenstein is a brilliant scientist who has mastered everything he has learned from his professors. However, he has never learned how to master his emotions about his creation. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explores the relationship between Victor and the monster to show the reader that the dynamic between the two beings happens to be two-faced. On the surface, they are hell-bent on revenge; while deep down they need each other, and more importantly, they need each other's forgiveness.

Frankenstein’s creation was lost in the world with no one who could have understood him . It felt sorrowful and unfulfilled emotions as seen in this quote. Betrayal by Victor leaves a large impact the monster carried, which, turned into a monster full of hate and dissatisfaction. Victor’s creation was not a monster , but new born baby in a grown horrific body that was not to be called his own . It becomes a monster both mentally and physically, who will be feared by all . Victor not giving him the love he needed gets the monster enraged, which leads the monster to cause series of events that affects Victor unforgivably. .

This is when Frankenstein decides to do the right thing and not create a female monster for his creation to be with. When Victor is faced with a question on the subject, he thinks about his morals and says that the monster, “may render him the most miserable of men, but (the monster) shall never make base of him in his own eyes.” (129) This shows that Victor might actually have some heart after all, at least for himself, if not the ones he cares about. He believes that if he were to, “create another like (the monster), their joint wickedness may desolate the world.” (129) Ceding to the monster’s demands would be unethical because of two reasons: another monster to wreak havoc upon the world, and the potential for “monster babies”, which is to be feared for obvious reasons. Therefore, Victor is correct in refusing to grant the monster’s demands.

Victor Frankenstein had the great idea of creating a human-like creature that ultimately became bigger, stronger, and meaner than everyone around. The process and steps took a lot longer than what Victor predicted. When the creature finally took his first breath, the two long years of anticipation finally relieved Victor of his stress. Victor stayed up numerous nights and missed so many meals stressing over this creature. He never gave up despite all the difficulties wanting to become the first ever bringing life to a creature. “So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation” (sparknotes). The creature was very hideous, gigantic, and didn’t look to friendly to humans. All the time and work Victor put into

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein we are introduced early in the story to one of the main characters Victor Frankenstein and subsequently to his creation referred to as the monster. The monster comes to life after being constructed by Victor using body parts from corpses. As gruesome as this sounds initially we are soon caught up in the tale of the living monster. Victor the creator becomes immediately remorseful of his decision to bring the monstrous creation to life and abandons the borne creature. Victor describes his emotions and physical description of his creation as follows:

This time Victor allows the creature to approach him. After some time the creature demands a female companion and it is only with pity and much argumentation that Victor consents. While the creature watches, Victor begins working on the female monster and then he destroys it. Victor, by doing this, is ignoring the creature's feelings and breaking his promise. Therefore, Victor Frankenstein, after much hard work, rejects his own creation due to its monstrosity.

In the story Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster out of old body parts. In the secrecy of his apartment, he brings the monster to life. When he sees the monstrosity he created, however, the sight horrifies him. The monster, enraged that his creator left him alone to basically die, kills Victor’s youngest brother. The monster tells Victor when they finally meet again, he’ll stop killing his family if Victor creates him a female companion, equally as unattractive as him.

Likewise, Victor Frankenstein allows his emotional senses to give way to a hatred of the Creature without even giving the Creature a chance. After seeing the hideous creation made by his own hands, Victor refrains from taking responsibility of the actions of the Creature, even when his conscious tells him it is his duty to. On the night of the creation, Victor recalls that the creature, who he emotionally describes as a monster, “held up the curtain of the bed … one hand stretched out, seemingly to detain [Victor], but [he] escaped … catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of

The monster soon asks Frankenstein to create another monster, so he can have a mate. Frankenstein agrees at first, however, he does not follow through with his promise. His original plan, for the monster, as a tool for society soon crumbles and he is exterminated by his own

Throughout the story the Frankenstein’s monster is referred to as a true monster because of the different acts that he has committed, yet throughout the story the reader is made aware of the compassion and morality that Victor’s” creature possesses, like a real human. Victor is the true monster in this horror novel, because he possesses many of the characteristics that would define what a monster is. Victor Frankenstein created his monster due to his eagerness for alchemy and his unnatural obsession with being like God. Victor does not take into account the consequences of his actions. Victor rejects his creation the moment he lays eyes on it, and this caused the monster to perform the acts that he did. The cruel rejection is what begins the a journey that will soon enough be end of Victor. After Victor decides to go back on creating his monster a mate, he then destroys the half made creature which anger Frankenstein’s monster and this cause him wreak revenge on his creator. The monster tells Victor that he will be at his wedding night and the killing spree beings, Victor loses his father, and his friend Henry Clerval because of what Victor had done. In my opinion I believe that should have stuck to creating his monster a mate and this would have made things easier for him and

At some point in history, it is highly probable that a wise man or woman once made the assertion that irrational decisions lead to irrational outcomes and in that statement, it would set in place a pivotal exemplary for decision making in today’s society. However, Leon Kass, an American physician, scientist, and educator, takes the stance combating the ideology of rational decision making in his article, entitled, “The Wisdom of Repugnance. by upholding his argument that Repugnance holds validity when making effective decisions of policy and lawmaking. In dissent, Although Kass makes the argument that Repugnance is an applicable model to construct social mores and laws I strongly believe that argumentation (which is not present in the idea

The Technological Approach: cloning is seen as a development of previous methods for assisting reproduction.

This curiosity then leads them to their creations of going past common laws of science. However, this expansion of scientific knowledge begins a treacherous journey ahead of them. Victor Frankenstein’s curiosity all started when he was at the university of Ingolstadt, and during his studies, he became particularly interested in the anatomy of humans; “One of the phaenomena which had peculiarly attracted my attention was he structure of the human frame,” (Shelley 78). As the creation experienced unfriendly and violent interaction despite that his intentions were kind, he wished that Victor would create him a mate. As Victor raised the hopes of the monster as he agreed, then later did not obey his wishes, the monster became his creation’s enemy; “Man, you may hate; but beware!

Joshua Lederberg’s controversial article titled “Experimental Genetic and Human Evolution” promoting human cloning, published in the 60’s sparked the widespread debate on cloning that would continue for decades to come. Leon Kass, leader of the President’s council of bioethics and a prominent figure in this debate, engaged in a lively debate with Lederberg where he argued that the “programmed reproduction of a man would, in fact, dehumanize him.” Lederberg and Kass are arguably the most well-known figures in the debate surrounding the issue of human reproductive cloning, and their hardline views on this matter, to a large extent, reflect the views of most people I have talked to about human cloning. On reading pieces published by various medical ethicists and philosophers, I have had a hard-time distinguishing what pieces of information we can really trust as the process of human cloning and all of its perceived implications because of what they are: perceptions. We still have no real way of knowing what a “developed” process of cloning would look like and the only way we can really discuss this is to make rational assumptions of how human cloning could take place (the duration, whether the child will have a gestation period within the mother, the potential biological impediments of the process, etc). However, even so, we still have no real idea of how it would actually change societal

The book Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley compares a lot with today’s ever popular cloning, though Frankenstein may not be considered a complete clone he is very similar to what a clone would be because of all the stitched up parts from other dead bodies. There are many themes in the story, but one that is very important is the actual creation of the creature himself and how he did not turn out like what was expected. The true idea behind monstrosity is a careless someone who creates evil or creates a lot of problems without fixing it and this can compare with cloning. This idea will compare to cloning because in the future cloning could go too far and create something such as a real Frankenstein that would