Frankenstein and Caligari: Fiction and bioethics

Abstract

Surgery is the branch that studies surgical intervention in the human body, while psychiatry is responsible for studying, diagnosing and treating the mental pathologies of man. This work focuses on the antagonism to which characters such as Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Caligari refer, regarding medical and scientific praxis. Here it is shown how the manipulation of life, even for scientific purposes, can generate both ethical and social problems. Mary Shelley and the visionaries of Caligari, had a life marked by difficult situations, that did not prevent their works were of great originality and aroused curiosity about science. Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus (1818) and Dr. Caligari's cabinet (1920) begin in the public (readers or spectators) a deep reflection on the scientific ethos.