“It Might be Dangerous…You Go First”: The Ethics of Research in Mary Shelley’s _Frankenstein_ and Mel Brooks’s _Young Frankenstein_

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is described as an example of the dangers of science, especially of science taken into areas where “one ought not to go.” We are warned to avoid exploring areas better left unexplored, to avoid research we shouldn’t be doing, or to ask, “How much is too much?” Even if this was the original intent, there is a better, and more helpful, interpretation of the work for modern scientists to take: Frankenstein as a condemnation of unethical research and as an argument for modern ethical review of research, such as that which is conducted by an Institutional Review Board. Perhaps surprisingly, this can be shown by comparing it to the 1974 spoof, Young Frankenstein.