I don't think that Charlie's experience improved the lives of others. Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss—especially Dr. Nemur, who was getting older—rushed into the experiment too quickly. They took advantage of Charlie's lack of intelligence and sophistication to get him to agree to brain surgery when he was unable to fully understand the risks of what he was getting into. One of the main points of the story is that the scientists were more concerned about themselves and their careers than they were about the fates of Charlie and Algernon. Charlie identifies with Algernon because he realizes that he too has simply been used by the two scientists as an experimental animal.
One can only hope that Nemur and Strauss will learn from their mistake and refrain for experimenting on humans, at least until they are much more certain of the physical and psychological repercussions of their experiments. They should, for ethical reasons, refuse to do any more experiments that could cause pain and suffering.
Saturday, January 26, 2019
At the end of Flowers for Algernon, Charlie feels good that he did something important for science, although he cannot remember what. Do you think that his experience did improve the lives of others? Do you think Nemur and Strauss will continue to experiment on other people? Should they?
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