Abstract
As literary works, science fiction (SF) novels reflect upon cultural and religious values embedded in a society. Such reflection and writer’s point of views provide deeper understanding on public concern and engagement with ethical issues, especially bioethics. As teaching literature is a part of Malaysian national syllabus in school, incorporating SF novels in current syllabus can play an important role in bioethics education for Malaysian public. However, very little is known about Malay SF novels to draw conclusive evidence on its impact towards bioethics education for Malaysian public. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore ethical issues, ethical thinking and principles that had been highlighted in recent Malay SF novels. Three novels were selected from the winner of recent SF novel writing competition, which are Transgenik Sifar, Leksikon Ledang and Klon. The content of the novels is analyzed qualitatively using content analysis method. The study found that recent development in genetic research such as genetic modification and human cloning are the main themes of the novels. There is contestation of ethical position in every novel, usually between the scientists who justified their research ‘for the sake of science’ and the protagonists who against the research based on religious and moral reasons. Related ethical issues regarding research ethics, medical ethics as well as environmental issues were also raised by each novel. These findings suggest that in general Malay SF novels highlighted public concern with ethical issues raised by emerging genetic research through writer’s point of view. This study will serve as a base for further exploration on the importance of Malay SF novels towards the development of bioethics education in Malaysia.
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