Ethical Issues In Machine Man

In his novel, Machine Man, Max Barry creates a dystopian society within a science laboratory complex, Better Future. Brilliant ideas involving technical advances and future high-quality technologies will arise from the science district. Now, for most people, developing technologies to improve the quality of daily life is not morally wrong; however, when developing technologies sail too far to the point where the technology will compel people to create and alter themselves into “biologically and mechanically” running robots, then there is a problem. Machine Man depicts the complexity and horrifying details of how a brilliant scientist, Dr. Charles Neumann, would develop and become a “volunteer” to try on his prosthetic inventions. According to Cole VanNostrand, who is a prosthetic engineer himself, his article: "Prosthetics: The Ethical Issues surrounding Them," states that engineers need to follow the strict protocol of the National Society of …show more content…
Without doubt, medical interventions should not endanger lives of human subjects (VanNostrand 1). Machine Man has shown how disorderly, unregulated malpractice of human experimentation has turn an exuberant and popular science lab into a workplace filled with crimes and chaos. Prosthetics invented are only becoming an augment to biological functions of the body. The managers of Better Future decides to take everything into their own hands, bringing destruction to the company, and luring federal officials to the area. The company’s plan of making millions out of the prosthetics backfired when “The Manager” was killed unintentionally by Dr. Neumann (Barry 174). As the story unfolds, Dr. Neumann is unconsciously transformed into a biological robot controlled by a computer; the only part of his body that is not man-made are his head, a shoulder, and an arm (Barry