Why is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein still relevant today?

One thing that makes Frankenstein extremely relevant today are the kinds of scientific experiments that we do and the increasing advancements made by the medical community.  Medical ethics -- what we can do and what we should do might be two very different things -- were problematic for Victor and they remain problematic for us today.  Where is the line?  Everyone seems to have a different opinion.

Victor's goal, besides attaining glory and honor for his achievement, is to "render man invulnerable to any but a violent death"; he wants to figure out a way to make us stronger and more resilient so that we no longer succumb to disease, the way his mother did when she died of scarlet fever.  Essentially, rather than find a cure for all diseases, he wants to make us so strong that we would be immune to them all.  Scientists, today, are attempting to discover cures or vaccines for diseases in order to render us incapable of suffering with them, and we tend to think of this as important work.  But how far should we go in the attempt to sustain human life?  When do we cross a line into "playing God"?  What will happen as a result of more people living longer when cures are discovered?  These are the kinds of thoughtful questions that Victor never asked himself when he made the first creature.  He lacks forethought, and Shelley seems to warn readers not to make the same mistake.

Victor's practices can be viewed as unethical, and many people consider certain medical practices unethical today.  Women who receive in-vitro fertilization can now choose the sex of their baby; some individuals would consider IVF or making choices such as this "playing God."  Many people who oppose abortion rights also feel that getting an abortion, a medical procedure, is playing God as well.  Again, where is the line?  We still cannot come to a consensus on medical interventions like this.  

Frankenstein forces us to consider how far is too far.  It makes us form an opinion on Victor's behavior and, in doing so, we have to consider our own community's similar behaviors and whether or not we are doing something we shouldn't.  We'll never agree, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have the conversations, and this novel is one starting point.