Frankenstein And The Birthmark

Human Cloning, an exact replication of an adult human, should be banned in the United States of America because of its possible consequences to society as a whole, as proven by the science fiction novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, and the short story “The Birthmark,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Human cloning raises ethical concerns considering how society will react and change due to the clonal population. Subsequently, scientists are forced to ask themselves the question, “If cloning is seen as a way to reproduce the ‘best’ in the human species, who decides which qualities are best?” (Cloning 2). If humans are allowed to clone their offspring, then soon most people would either want their children to look like the idea of ‘perfect’ created

From a scientific standpoint, reproductive cloning would rob the clones of their individuality, as they are exactly like someone in the past that people would expect them to live up to, as Gerald Ford stated, “From there it is a short step toward a soulless state wherein assembly line man is robbed of his individuality by science run amok”(Ford). Also, the clones do not have a say in whether they want that or not, which would make them feel like they were quite literally robbed of their individuality, as they are humans, too, who would have existed as a completely different person had it not been for cloning. On another note, If human clones do not turn out perfect, their “creators” may abandon them, and that could affect the clones in a negative way and make them want revenge on their creators for doing that to them, similar to how the creature felt in Frankenstein. In the quote “He had abandoned me: and, in the bitterness of my heart, I cursed him” (Shelley), Victor Frankenstein ran from his own creation, something similar could happen if after the cloning the parent realizes that they are “playing god,” or that what they are doing is “immoral,” leading to abandonment. Moreover, human clones would have no choice but to live with being clones, and possibly the pain of some kind of mutation caused by their cloning. In “The Birthmark,” before Aylmer attempted to remove the birthmark from his wife, she started second guessing him, asking questions like, “Perhaps its removal may cause cureless deformity…” (Hawthorne 2). She was wondering if his solution would make her “flaw” worst, which it did in the end. The problem is, clones do not have this option, even though clone deformities are