Genetic Engineering And Cloning In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

In today’s society there are many debates from education reform, finance reform, gender and racial equity to genetic engineering and cloning. Many of these issues can be related back to nineteenth-century American literatures. For example, the debate over genetic engineering and cloning can be related to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”. Genetic engineering and cloning has been a heated debate for a long time. Genetic engineering may work wonders but it is after all a process of manipulating the nature. A similar situation was also presented in Hawthorne’s literature “The Birthmark”. In his story, the main character believed science can fix everything. He decided science would make the mark on his wife’s face disappear, which he did but she died once her mark was removed.
The idea of genetic engineering has been a very heated topic of discussion lately. The possibilities of this topic range from cloning to gene therapy and eugenics. The most recent type, eugenics through gene therapy has created a lot of controversy. Eugenics is the
Similar to the debate over genetic engineering and cloning. He was a good scientist according to any standard. He was smart, diligent, and “an eminent proficient” in natural science. Hawthorne was not against science; he was against “perfect science”, against the people who wanted a “perfect science”. Aylmer was so devoted to science that his marriage with Georgiana, his wife, was “intertwined with his love of science” (Hawthorne, 1321). Hawthorne was telling a truth, that a man has to be a good human first before he can be a good scientist. In the story, Hawthorne gradually set out the idea that Nature is equal to everyone; there is no perfection in the nature. As he said, “Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions” (Hawthorne,