The modern Frankenstein : fiction becomes fact / Ray Hammond.

"Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein was obsessed with creating life. Scientists are now seriously contemplating assuming the role of God and turning her fiction into fact. Mary's Frankenstein gave us a language and imagery which can help us confront the dilemmas thrown up by genetic manipulation and the creation of machine intelligence. These sciences are now forcing us to consider ideas which are incredibly difficult to understand and suggesting concepts which can be unthinkable. In The Modern Frankenstein, Ray Hammond introduces us to the unthinkable; the creation, manipulation and alteration of life by modern scientists and he suggests that common-place procedures, such as transplant operations and plastic surgery, are merely steps towards our ultimate goal: the control of our own evolution. His story traces how Mary Shelley came to write her powerful novel, how her allegory has captured 20th century imagination and how today's scientists are coping with the real life responsibility which caused Victor Frankenstein to abandon his creation."--From dust jacket.