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Human Body Determination In Frankenstein

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Opponents of human body part replacement claim that tweaking man in this manner is a form of playing God, and the replication of bodily structures does not mean the human body is “replaceable.” The fear of playing God has been a worry for centuries; man does not want to put themselves into a position in which they have the ultimate say over life and death. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Dr. Victor Frankenstein attempts to create a new species made from spare parts of humans, but in doing so creates a horrific monster seen as a morbid abomination (Shelley). This morbid abomination eventually becomes more and more humanlike, such as showing compassion for the drowning girl (Shelley 120) and wanting Victor to create him a companion to prevent his terrible loneliness. Although not physically accepted as being human, the …show more content…

Victor brought a living being into the world that reacted to stimuli in a human matter and was only condemned because of his horrific appearance, something that can be blamed on the technology of the time. A modern Frankenstein’s monster would quite possibly look very human, and would be challenging to discern as not being so. The monster would not necessarily be a monster anymore; it would fall in line with the human condition and at its core, be no less human than someone naturally born of a man and a woman. This concept translates to the replication of body parts. It is claimed that replacing parts of the human anatomy are unnatural and creating our own structures to make up for our faults is a form of playing God, an unforgivable crime. If at its core, the parts that are created simply make life simpler for humanity, then it is not something negative at all. One is still human when they have a pacemaker, a bionic limb, or even an entirely artificial brain. Humans have always found ways to improve life, and this replication is just one of those

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