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The Bioethical Dilemmas Of Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein

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Annie Brown Mr. Lipscomb AP Literature and Comp 12 April 2016 The Bioethical Dilemmas in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein According to the Upfront magazine by the year 2017, the world may be facing a real life Frankenstein. Physician Sergio Canavero claims that “he can give paralyzed people or those with cancer a new life by removing their heads and transplanting them onto healthy bodies donated by brain-dead patients” (4). There are many problems with Canavero’s claim: firstly, people believe Canavero is trying to play God, secondly, the ethical problem of experimenting animals, and lastly, the question of how the transplanted person would be treated by society. These ethical issues are the principles issues of bioethics, which is the study the ethics of medical and biological research. While bioethics is a recently new field, the principle issues have been around since the age of scientific revolution. The years following the scientific revolution were filled with many writers whom wished to warn society about advancing medical procedures. Among those writers, was young Mary Wallstonecraft Shelley, who was born on 30 August 1797 in the Polygon, Somers Town, London. Mary Shelly lived through many tragedies; her mother died when she was born, her husband, Percy Shelley, was suicidal, she lost many of her children, and eventually her husband died when he went out sailing. While her husband was alive, they traveled to Switzerland to meet the English poet, George Gordon Lord

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