Loss of Humanity
After Dr. Grubel’s first experiment, it becomes abundantly clear that he holds no human values. His first experiment involved taking two twenty-year old twins and locking them up in separate rooms. He wanted to test if punishing one of them would have any affect over the other one. After just a few days, Dr. Grubel kills one of the twins while leaving the other to live in solitude for the rest of her life. Although the image on the top left of the page is disturbing and uncanny, it represents the humanity and connection between two twins. The image depicts a pair of conjoined twins connected by the spinal cord and ribs. Dr. Grubel did not use conjoined twins in his experiment but the image represents the physical, emotional and spiritual connection between them nonetheless. Because twins are extraordinarily genetically similar, they come to represent the closest possible connection between two human beings. By separating them, Dr. Grubel is breaking the fundamental bond that exists between the two, symbolizing the loss of humanity in Dr. Grubel and the loss of connection between two of the closest organisms in the world.
In “Values at Play”, Flanagan and Nissenbaum state, “Narrowing our attention to ethically and politically significant values still leaves plenty of room for controversy over what values and whose values count… [S]ome have asked, ‘My personal values may be different from yours… How can you presume to select particular values…?’” (Flanagan and Nissenbaum 6). Flanagan and Nissenbaum argue that when implementing values into a video game, one problem we must address is whose values to implement. I agree that this could be a problem, until one’s values are clearly unacceptable like in Dr. Grubel’s case. Flanagan and Nissenbaum fail to address at what point someone’s values become intolerable. Although Dr. Grubel is excessively brutal, he represents a part of the scientific community who values scientific research over humanity. Their reasoning behind this could be that the reward is much greater than the consequence. These experiments such as stem cell research and human genetic engineering will harm test subjects, but will result in saving millions of more lives.
By Kyle Yuan
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