How Is Flowers For Algernon Act Ethical

815 Words2 Pages

Foster 1
Katelyn Foster
Putman
Hour 3 & 6
15 November 2016
Argument Paper
A person's ethics are his or her standards of what is right, wrong, and just in terms of obligation, fairness, rights, and specific values. In the story "Flowers for Algernon" Charlie Gordon, the narrator of the story, has an extremely low IQ and longs to be smart. "I hope they use me. Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart" (Keyes, page 53). Charlie is hoping to be selected for an experimental program recommended by his night school teacher in which he and a white mouse named Algernon will undergo a surgery that supposedly makes them smarter. Charlie knows of only one outcome of the operation – getting smarter; he does not know it will affect him in …show more content…

In the story "Flowers for Algernon" Charlie explains how the doctors were conducting the experiment to see if the operation had long-term increase in intelligence. On page 57 Charlie writes, "If you volenteer for this experament you mite get smart. They don’t know if it will be perminint" (Keyes). In the article "Ethics in Medicine" it lists questions for doctors to ask themselves before performing an operation. One question was, "Has the patient been informed of benefits and risks, understood this information, and given consent?" The doctors cannot even begin to answer this question because they do not know the risks themselves. With such uncertainty, their motivation for conducting the experiment becomes questionable and consequently unethical.
Although the doctors do not act ethically, many would argue they do. Charlie Gordon is a thirty two-year old man who has an incredibly low IQ and mental disabilities. His life long dream is to become smart and works diligently in night school with his teacher Miss Kinnian. The
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