Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Cloning

	-by LeeAnn Doctor

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has become a very well-known and popular book.
Part of that popularity and attention has come from the subject she wrote
about--creating life from the lifeless; or as we see it today--cloning.

Issues that have risen include whether or not the way Victor Frankenstein
made and brought his monster to life is possible and the ethics concerning
cloning.

As of right now, scientists have not discovered the technology of combining
body parts of random people with very different genetics and cells. Victor’s
statement, “I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave and tortured
the living animal to animate the lifeless clay” (Shelley 33) isn’t the exact
explanation of how to clone. Cloning is a very long process which cost billions of
dollars.

But Mary Shelley had the right idea. While at the time she meant for her
story to be one of horror and disgust and in her own words, “would speak to
the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror--one to make
the reader dread to look around, to curdle the blood, and quicken the
beatings of the heart,” she actually set a milestone in the scientific
world. Her novel allowed the mind to be creative and believe there will one
day be a time when humans can create life from a simple cell to re-create
dead loved ones, to cure diseases, and to help infertile couples.

At the time the novel was written, Mary Shelley and her readers saw fusing
decayed body parts together as morbid and as something of the imagination,
but we now know through experiments and lessons that what she had written
about was cloning. Mary Shelley, in the novel, never exactly wrote how Victor
Frankenstein created the monster or how the monster was brought to life. She 

was able to express exactly what could happen in our society if human
clones were made.

Victor Frankenstein’s reactions to the monster's hideousness and abnormalities

foreshadows how a society might react to a cloned human being. Mary 

Shelley shows us how the monster was treated by his natural counterparts.

Mary Shelley definitely pinpointed the reactions of humans through her novel.
Through concise words and emotions of the characters that can be identified
with by any person, she shows us the horrors of having “monsters” among us.
In one situation the monster sadly says, “One of the best of these huts I
entered, but I had hardly placed my foot within the door before the children
shrieked and one of the women fainted” (101). Throughout the novel, the
monster expresses his sad and lonely state which then led to violence. How
does one know if this could happen in the future.

It’s almost as if these “monsters” will have no souls as well. Questions arise
such as who is the parent of the cell which turned into the clone or are
humans trying “to play God.” Does this mean that because humans created the
cell and it isn’t of God that it has no soul? Many times it seems as if the
monster couldn’t relate to the humans not because of his appalling looks but
rather that he wasn’t connected to them because of his lack of a soul. Many
believe that clones are born without souls. Does that mean, somehow, they
will never be able to connect with others on an even deeper level?

Because of differences, physically and biologically, clones face being
ridiculed by their natural counterparts. The science of cloning hasn’t
exactly been perfected and while it may be enlightening that scientists have
discovered a way to create animals Victor states, “The beauty of the dream
had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (56). When
pictures are shown of crippled clones or of clones aging too quickly and have
serious health problems, we are horrified. While one may not want to admit
it, people are vain in one way or another and will shun those who are not as
they are.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has brought up many issues. Some of them are good
and some are bad, but regardless they have brought up very important issues
that should be continued to be researched and understood.

“Mary Shelley's Frankenstein shows exactly what would happen if human cloning
was pursued. Using a monster instead of human clones and a distraught
scientist instead of the world community, Frankenstein shows the
discrimination and tension that would become of the world if cloning took
place. Human cloning would tear apart a world community that took several
millennia to bring together, and would result in no winning sides, just one
distraught and torn apart world.”
	-anonymous

-Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Dover Publications
    Inc. 1831, 1994
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