Science opens doors to many new possibilities and discoveries, but often also leads to moral dilemmas. People need to pause and ask themselves: "Just because science shows us how something can be done, should we really do it?" In Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson makes an attempt to answer this question through the experiments of Dr. Jeckyll.
Dr. Jeckyll is an extremely intelligent scientist during the Victorian period, and is searching for a way to separate the "good" side of himself from the "bad" side of himself. He believes that, "If each could be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his upright twin; and the just could go steadfastly and securely on his upward path- (Stevenson 80). But even if this were possible, the consequences could be disastrous. Sure, separating these personalities could relieve the good side of stress and totally free it, but what does the bad side do when it is unrestricted and free to do whatever it wants? It does exactly what Dr. Hyde does: hurts people and causes terror among the town. Why, then, did Dr. Jeckyll not realize this? Did he overlook this fact or did he just not care?.
Jeckyll explains to his friends in his statement of the case that in the beginning his morals prevented him from completing his experiments, "But the temptation of a discovery so singular and profound at last overcame the suggestions of alarm. (Stevenson 81). This demonstrates the moral dilemma. Dr. Jeckyll has discovered a way to "separate" the "good" and "evil" beings from inside himself, however, he is restrained by his morals and beliefs. The temptation that Dr. Jeckyll faces in the book is the same that exists in every day life.
Cloning and stem cell research are two examples of how the moral dilemma is present in the world today.
