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Flowers For Algernon Arguments

568 Words3 Pages

Aviva Keating
Putman
Hour 2 and 5
15 November 2016
Argument Paper

Scientists have not yet achieved the feat of improving humans with artificial intelligence. The story Flowers for Algernon is a fictional account of a man 's experiences before and after having surgery to improve his intelligence levels. Charlie Gordon, the man who undergoes the experiment, had an IQ of 68 when he was approached by two doctors about an opportunity to triple his intelligence. He accepts the offer and completes multiple tests to track his progress. Charlie races against an extremely intelligent mouse named Algernon who has been given the same surgery. Eventually, he beats Algernon and becomes an intelligent human, even smarter than his teacher Ms. Kinnian and …show more content…

Another way Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss were not ethical was that they did not ask themselves the necessary questions before doing the procedure. According to the University of Washington School of Medicine 's paradigm of Ethics in Medicine, a doctor must ask themselves "Is the patient mentally capable and legally competent, and is there evidence of incapacity?" Legally competent means having the ability to make sound decisions regarding the legal aspects of an operation. Charlie, being a mentally disabled person, did not have the capabilities to make a reasonable conclusion. Conducting surgery on someone who is not mentally able to make sound decisions can be considered medical negligence.
Although Charlie 's doctors were not ethical, some people believe the doctors ' actions were ethical. The doctors did not hurt Charlie, nor did they lie to him. All the doctors did was not tell him the outcome of they procedure, but they did that in order to spare him.
In summary, Charlie Gordon 's doctors were not ethical because they did not follow the Hippocratic Oath or ask themselves the necessary ethical questions doctors must ask themselves. They acted foolishly and because of that, they hurt Charlie in the long run. Possibly, if Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss gave him all the information, Charlie wouldn 't have agreed to the operation and wouldn’t have had to go through the pain of losing everything. He couldn 't make a good choice based on the information

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