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Ethical Issues - Oryx and Crake and Frankenstein - Coggle Diagram
Ethical Issues - Oryx and Crake and Frankenstein
Animal cruelty
"He raises his stick, shakes it at them. Usually they bolt if he does that - pigoons have long memories, and sticks look like electropods" (pg 275)
Suggests that pigoons were tortured using electropods and are fearful of humans as a result
Is it ethical to torture animals for scientific research?
"Drive up the prices," said the man. "Make a killing on their own stuff, that way." (pg 21)
One of Jimmy's father's colleagues is explaining how a rivalling Compound brought in a virus that killed the animals at OrganInc and forced them to burn them in a bonfire. This shows how animals are simply treated as throwaway items by Compound scientists who want to raise prices and increase profits.
Genetic engineering
"There's a mouth opening at the top, they dump the nutrients in there...they'd removed all the brain functions that had nothing to do with digestion, assimilation and growth." (pg 238)
Focusing on efficiency and profit maximisation has led scientists to create animals that simply serve their purpose and don't have the ability to think or feel
Is it ethical to create something that cannot think for itself?
"they're programmed to drop dead at age thirty - suddenly, without getting sick." (pg 356)
As Crake describes the Crakers to Jimmy, he explains how they are programmed to die at a certain age. This feature shows how Crake is playing God by determining when his creatures will die.
Is it ethical to determine how long something will live for?
Manipulation by corporations
"The BlyssPluss pill would also act as a sure-fire one-time-does-it-all birth control pill...would confer large-scale benefits on the planet" (pg 347)
Crake is advertising his pill positively while hiding the fact that it would sterilise the user. He does this because he wants to lower the population levels and save the Earth.
Is it ethical to hide negative side effects of a product for a greater good with its use?
"AnooYoo was a collection of cesspool denizens who existed for no other reason than to prey on the phobias and void the bank accounts of the anxious and the gullible." (pg 290)
This quote shows how AnooYoo attracts customers who have insecurities about their appearances and takes away their money until they become bankrupt.
Is it ethical to prey on insecurities of people in advertising?
"dozen or so ravaged hopefuls...paying no fees but signing away their rights to sue...had come out looking..uneven in tone, greenish brown and peeling in ragged strips." (pg 63)
This description of the test trials at NooSkins shows how the Compound manipulates its test subjects by offering them free trials. When they come out looking different from what was advertised they can't sue because they signing away their suing rights.
Tampering with the human body
"I collected bones from charnel-houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame." (pg 43)
This quote describes Frankenstein creating the monster from dead human body parts.Even he recognises that he is tampering with something sacred by referring to his fingers as 'profane' and actions as 'disturbing'.
Is it ethical to deal with the human body after death without permission from the deceased person?
Is it ethical to bring back someone from the dead?
"we had to alter ordinary human embryos...never mind where we got them...they're reproducing themselves now." (pg 356)
Crake is explaining how he created the Crakers, his vision of the future human race. He has to use human embryos and alter them but hides their origins.
Child trafficking
"they would be paid a sum of money, which they could send home to their families...(No money was sent to the village)." (pg 137)
Uncle En is telling the mothers of the village that their children would be paid money that could be sent back home to them. However, as the sidenote reveals, this never happens and is simply just to bribe the parents into selling their children to him.
"The next day some of them went in a truck, in the back of a truck." (pg 160)
Oryx and some other girls are being trafficked to a different job than what was told to their parents in the village.They are being transported in the back of a truck in harsh, hot conditions and are not treated humanely.
"filmed while doing things they'd be put in jail for back in their home countries...just another little girl on a porno site...the guy's distinguishing features were concealed" (pg 103)
Child pornography is illegal but is done in countries where people can get away with it. The phrase 'just another little girl' shows how widespread these illegal sites are on the internet.