1	Frankenstein and the American Death Ethos The New Prometheus
2	Science and Power Shelley’s novel was subtitled, “The Modern Prometheus”
3	What lessons are to be learned from Shelley’s story? What happens when our power of science and technology gains control over us? Due to the power of the doctors and medicine, people no longer are allowed to die on their own terms. Prolonged suffering in the name of defeating death. Increase in “post-mature” deaths. What happens when we simply gain too much power? Cloning Genetically-altered food products Do we really want to conquer death?
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5	The link below explores these issues: Frankenstein and the Death Ethos
6	Frankenstein and Cryobiology A breakthrough in cryopreservation dubbed “A Frankenstein Experiment” Of mice and men? A research team in Hawaii dealing with mice is trying to “manage the ever-increasing numbers of their mutant strains” (Sikorski and Peters, 1998). Although the embryos can be frozen, the process is difficult…normal freezing and thawing processes yield a dead result Keeping live rodents is costly in terms of time and budgets “Next, they performed an experiment a bit like Frankenstein’s: They used micromanipulation to remove the freeze-dried sperm heads and to inject them directly into unfertilized mouse oocytes. They idea was to see whether the nucleus was dormant and could be revived within the cytoplasm of the host egg…In the end, 30% of all head-injected oocytes produced viable mouse offspring that appeared completely normal” (Sikorski and Peters, 1998). What does this science mean in our culture? Further death-denial: Not only can we be cryogenically frozen for all eternity, but our reproductive capabilities could continue indefinitely, causing death to be only a temporary status and the continuation of our legacies Frankenstein serves as a warning against playing God with science and nature. Does freezing sperm to create never-ending offspring also, in effect, mean playing God? Will the potential offspring revolt against the creators like the monster did against the doctor?
7	Evolution of…“Frankenfood?” Biotechnology: Good Enough for YOUR family? Case of Monsanto Genetically-engineered crops include “insect-killing, herbicide-resistant soybeans,” a cause of controversy for the CEO Bob Shapiro Monsanto is also the company who makes the drug Celebrex, which “doesn’t appear to cause adverse gastric side effects” (Schwartz and Borden, 1999). “Monsanto expects U.S. farmers to plant over 30 million acres’ worth of its herbicide-resistant soybeans this year [1999], or roughly 40% of the market” (Schwartz and Borden, 1999). “While there’s no evidence that genetically modified foods are dangerous to eat, their environmental effects are less certain” (Schwartz and Borden, 1999). Monsanto does not think that their products will cause gene crossing into wildlife as is feared by opponents Is this technology, like Frankenstein’s monster, also going to lead to a loss of control and unintended consequences? If the mutated strains of the food are found to be harmful, the outcomes could result in “premature” deaths. If the strains do end up crossing into other plant species in the wild, science will have lost control of its experiment, another nod to the Frankenstein metaphor.
8	Consequences of Biotechnology The producer of the so-called Frankenfoods and Celebrex is also a chemical company. What does this add to our exploration of Frankenstein in our death-denying culture? This company that is supposed to make life easier and better for people with genetically-altered food products makes chemicals in Louisiana Louisiana is the second most polluted state in the U.S. Green A documentary illustrating the results making the life-improving products of Monsanto and other chemical-producing plants along the Mississippi River in Louisiana. The results? Cancer Environmental pollution Toxic waste infiltration to the surrounding neighborhoods Explosions and accidents Death
9	Green cont’d. In our death-denying culture, we categorize and isolate death. Monsanto and companies like it locate their plants along a major U.S. river, in a predominately African-American neighborhood. What happens when there is an accident? A man, who lost a 16-year-old daughter to Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, cannot grow vegetables in his backyard anymore The Environmental Protection Agency will not relocate residents “Wish you could’ve seen Norco before their explosion—this would be the positive side if you want to say anything positive. Norco looks like a refurbished town…it’s unfortunate that we lost our seven employees—it scared the community–but the positive of that is, you know, Norco has a new look.” --Lily Gallund, Shell Community Relations, from the documentary Green Death, in this context, is only secondary to the “new look” of the chemical town. Who dies, where they die, when they die, and especially how they die are related to socioeconomic status and race.
10	Eugenics, Nazis, and Frankenstein Eugenics is the selection of certain people or traits that are either desirable, and thus regenerated, or undesirable, and thus eliminated. Germany is very reluctant to accept or condone any kind of biotechnology Peter Sloterdijk, German philosopher, believes, “it is a humanistic illusion to believe that traditional ‘nurture’ is enough when it comes to taming the bestial dimension of man’s nature,” and he uses the terms breeding, selection, human farms, and domestication, calling for a “human bio-utopia,” (Laubichler 1999: 1859). How does this relate to Frankenstein? In Nazi Germany, eugenics was used to “cleanse” the population of undesirables. Frankenstein selected body parts from “desirable” human corpses, from their graves, to create his monster. What does this tell us about our death-denying culture? “History, and in particular the Nazi period, then only serves to confirm these fears [about man’s control over nature wreaking havoc] and leads to fatalistic attitudes toward biotechnology,” (Laubichler 1999: 1859). Laubichler also likens this fear to the debate over stem-cell research, which raises the question of moral rights over advances in biotechnology. Who wins in such a debate? If the moral right wins, premature deaths could result. If biotechnology wins, could the deaths be pushed back or would the advances cause more harm than good?
11	Science in Frankenstein
12	Frankenstein Links
13	Cloning Links
14	Related Links
15	Works Cited