In the novel, Frankenstein, the scientist Victor has finally achieved his lifelong dream of creating new life. He of spent years of hard work and obsession to bring his ambitions to fruition. But when he laid eyes upon his creation he was overcome by feelings of disgust and regret. Victor had said, “For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 42). Victor rushes to the room in fear of his creation, but the creature only affection from its creator. This could lead to the creature becoming bitter and spiteful.
There are new methods of creating new life happening every day. Such as cloning. Some may argue that artificially created life does not have a soul. Do you think it is ethical to artificially create new life? Why or why not?
I think that artificially creating life can become a bad thing. If we are going to do things like grow organs then it wouldn’t be seen as a bad thing. I think that once we create something that is living with a soul or deeper method of thought and awareness is when it is important to evaluate what we are doing. If we were going to create something that would do work for us like most humans see computer then it might not be worth it or ethical to go beyond growing human parts.
I believe that it is ethical to artificially create new life up to a certain point. Organs and parts we need for bodily functions are ethical, but creating a living being, specifically another human, is a terrifying thought. Although I believe this, I do think cloning would be an interesting idea. I would like to clone myself, just so I have someone who is identical to me in all ways. The only downside to cloning is the thought of “them” turning on their “original” and becoming the evil clone.
Another thing that terrifies me, is that he used parts from dead bodies to “build” his creature. If we were actually able to form living beings, I would hope that we would have access to fresh parts.
I believe it is ethical to create new life because doctors/scientists could use it to do something good. For example, burn victims could be saved by doctors using artificial skin on their burned bodies. I believed whoever made the artificial skin was thinking of others who had died before because they did not have the technology to fix those who had terrible burns. Artificial skin can be so beneficial not only for burned victims but victims who have acid burns.
I think it is ethical to create artificial life. This could allow for breakthroughs in matching up others in organ donations and transplants. It would also make a way for LGBT+ couples to have families without going through a sperm donor or surrogate mother. I don’t think the ability of something to have a soul should render it as being ethical. The soul is not something physical that we can see or touch and is something instead focused on belief systems.
In reality, we are already creating artificial life. With IVF, we create an environment for zygote to develop when it could not be done naturally. In terms of cloning, I don’t particularly have an issue with it. I think the moral argument comes down to whether we take cloning and “designer babies” to the extreme and create essentially a homogenous race of people through eugenics. The soul is something that is inherently human, and I don’t think it would be effected by whether or not the person was created “naturally” or “artificially”, especially when we have AI that have personalities and “souls”.
I think that artificial life isn’t okay in all terms however I wouldn’t go as far to say those people don’t have a soul. They can have a soul and feel things even if they are made in a dish, whether people are made sexually or mechanically they are still people. Robots however do not have a soul because they are a computer and that is much deeper for they can develop their own soul type but it will never be the same as humans.