The dangerous nature of human experimentation is an often recurring theme in fiction stories, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one such story. The central character, Doctor Frankenstein, is obsessed with knowledge and in his quest to know all the secrets of life he creates a monster. The monster is a horrible creature, lonely and incapable of love. The creature laments the day of his creation and ultimately decides to destroy Doctor Frankenstein's life by killing Doctor Frankenstein's entire family. Doctor Frankenstein's thirst for knowledge leads his entire life to destruction, losing his family and his sanity, dying alone in explicable pain. The reckless and unnecessary manipulation of nature produced the desired result (the creation of a monster gave all the answers to the secrets of life), but the consequences that Doctor Frankenstein fails to foresee lead to a tragedy. The message that Mary Shelley hoped to convey to her contemporaries and future generations was a warning against extreme steps in experimentation toward promising but radical scientific progress. Many of us would agree that in manipulating the natural world we often cross the boundaries of ethically acceptable conduct where the potential benefits seem to justify the evil nature of the experiment. Human testing, while essential to scientific progress, poses many ethical questions in which we ask whether we should continue to dispose of human bodies in the name of medicine. We maintain the same old concern about man's obsession with knowledge, that a discovery for the good of the majority could become a justifiable reason to exploit a human being for the good of all. Science has long used human bodies... middle of paper....... “Human sacrifice and human experimentation: reflections in Nuremberg”. Yale Journal of International Law 18.9(1997):401 - 419. PrintMcElligott, Anthony. Useful bodies: man at the service of medical science in the twentieth century. Washington: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Print.Pasternak, Alfred. Inhumane Research: Medical Experiments in German Concentration Camps. Budapest: Akademial Kiado, 2006.Simmon, Diane. “Improving the culture of patient contribution to learning in healthcare.” Information and study center on participation in clinical research. (2010). Network. February 28, 2011. Strathern, Paolo. A Brief History of Medicine: From Hippocrates to Gene Therapy.New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2005.Straus, Alex. Medical Wonders: The 100 Greatest Advances in Medicine. New York: Prometheus Books, 2006.