Victor's Code Of Ethics In Frankenstein

Frankenstein and the monster are complex beings with a multitude of flaws that drive their motivations and actions, but ultimately, the monster is the more deserving candidate for sympathy due to a variety of inconsiderate and inequitable behavior aimed at him throughout the book; the monster’s journey and his concluding fate stands as an example of the harmful effects of crossing ethical boundaries in the long-term pursuit of scientific advancement. The monster stands as an hapless victim of Victor’s selfish endeavors and decisions to fulfil his own objectives.

At the beginning of this novel, Victor reanimates the new creature, but doesn’t think of the repercussions of his actions and acts on poorly thought out decisions due to his superficial

initial impressions of the grotesque monster. According to the AMA code of medical ethics, a highly regarded principle held by physicians is that they should “regard responsibility to the patient as paramount” and as the creator and lawful guardian of the monster, Victor should claim responsibility for its well being and activities and not just abandon it due to his personal feelings. At that point, Victor should attempt to teach proper behavior, commonly held standards and the overall basics of this foreign world. But, his actual actions are completely unfair to the monster, which has just recently woken up in this world and starts out having a limited understanding of how people behave and interact. Besides, the creation of the monster is an overwhelmingly selfish act done by him to satisfy his own curiosity, without any regards for the wellness of the new being he has created. He doesn’t carry out his wide range of obligatory responsibilities, as demonstrated by how he doesn't spare a single thought to how the monster would view his creator’s malice filled reception, along with how he completely ignores that he has a created a sentient living being, with the same potential for unique emotions and feelings as any other human on the planet. The fact that he completely abandons it, just after he created it, elucidates the sheer amount of irresponsibility and negligence that Victor acts on.

Furthermore, the monster is a patient for Victor and from an ethical standpoint, it’s treatment and care was performed appallingly.

Victor does not follow any guidelines that a physician should follow when treating a patient; for instance, a physician should “be dedicated to providing competent medical care, with compassion and respect for human dignity and rights” (AMA). As mentioned above, Victor crosses a generally held ethical boundary of proper responsibility by his initial escape from the monster and carefree disregard of his actions and their effects on the creature, along with his surroundings and as anticipated, his unthinking actions don’t pass without consequences. Victor had probably realized the society in general wouldn't accept his creation, as he himself has done, and that the outside world would be a significant danger to the monster. Moreover, he doesn't show any form of “respect” for the monster as an individual and instead, spends a majority the time thinking about how the monster was being a nefarious nuisance to his personal life and proceeded to deny repeated attempts of mutual connection and companionship from the monster. This is shown when the monster actually tries to communicate and interact with his creator when he first wakes up, only to be rejected: “His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds” (Shelley 49). Victor’s mentality is extremely unfair and reprehensible and holds him somewhat accountable for the ensuing repulsion and

hate that the monster feels towards humans. The monster has good intentions, as he states that ”What chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people, and I longed to join them, but dared not” (Shelley 108), showing his innocent curiosity regarding the ways of these people and only seeking for communication from his fellow beings, just to be aggressively denied.
Beyond that, Victor’s blind and insensitive immersion in his quest for new discoveries in the field of physical science results in completely ignoring the adverse effects of his actions.

The enticement of these scientific practices repeatedly trump any of Victor’s good conscience and results in the wide range of prejudiced behaviour that is unfairly directed towards the monster. A similar mindset can be witnessed by the researchers and doctors in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, who tested cancer related tests on the uninformed prisoners in the Ohio Penitentiary, ignored the risks that these tests may pose. The prisoners were convinced that they “deserved” these tests done on them, as they had harmed others in the past and the researchers knew full well that these tests had the potential for great harm, but didn’t get informed consent due to “any unnecessary fear” (Skloot 130). Additionally, this novel also mentions the Nuremberg Trials, a series of war tribunals centering on “conducting unthinkable research on Jews without consent” (Skloot 131), which had gathered historical significance due to it setting up the ethical code called the Nuremberg code. The advent of these laws illustrate how far humans have gone to gain more knowledge in the field of medicine and relates to the overall theme of Frankenstein, as they both emphasize the odious implications of rapidly advancing science. The monster’s and Victor’s situation is similar to that of the helpless Nuremberg

victims, experimented on by an entity with their own goals and natural authority, who are willing to cruelly look over any ethical concerns that may come along with these objectives.

In other words, the sympathy that is evoked in favor of the monster helps drive the the overall theme of how careless pursuit of science would culminate in a fundamentally hurtful conclusion. The monster remains as an unfortunate victim of this blindsiding passion present in Victor and has his entire pitiful existence forced upon him by the Victor’s self-serving fanaticism for innovative science.