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Was Flowers For Algernon Ethical

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Was Flowers For Algernon Ethical
Dupuy Kenzie Chang English Period 2
OPTION 2 WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Animal and human testing is a widely known experiment used in life. People either despise it or think it’s necessary and useful. The story Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is about a man named Charlie Gordon who gets a surgery and ends up becoming temporarily smart. Was performing an experiment on Charlie Gordon ethical? Some might say that it wasn’t ethical. Charlie didn’t even know what he was getting himself into. Others will say that it was ethical. I believe that it was ethical to perform an experiment on him. My reasons for why performing surgery on Charlie was ethical because first of all Charlie volunteered, next, it was for a good cause, and lastly,
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After all, the main point of the surgery was to help the mentally disabled people such as Charlie. My first piece of evidence is that it could be used to make people smarter for a good cause. In the progress report Charlie says the Dr. Nemur, one of his doctors said, “remember he will be the first human beeng ever to have his intelijence tripled by surgicle meens.” (pg3). This is one example of how this can be useful, it will significantly boost the intelligence of someone. This is something that has so many good uses and more importantly can help people who are mentally disabled. Furthermore, it has the potential to impact the lives of many of the mentally disabled people. My second piece of evidence is that the data of his results can be used in the future to prevent deaths from the surgery. In the progress report, Charlie says, “If I could be made into a genius, what about thousand of others like myself? What fantastic levels might be achieved by using this technique on normal people? Or geniuses?(pg14). This means that there are many possible ways that the surgery could be used. The surgery as mentioned in the quote could be used for more than just helping disabled people, but also to improve the intelligence of others who don’t necessarily need the surgery. Based on how smart Charlie became, the assistance of the surgery could easily make normal people have an immense impact on the

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