Ethical perception of modern biotechnology with special focus on genetically modified food among Muslims in Malaysia

摘要

Modern biotechnology has been given priority by the Malaysian government to spearhead the country’s economy and modern biotechnology products from other countries are slowly coming in. Past studies have shown that successful development and commercialization of modern biotechnology products depends heavily on public acceptance. If consumer acceptance issues are not adequately addressed in Malaysia, then the potential economic and social benefits of modern biotechnology may not be realized. Consumer acceptance of modern biotechnology is driven by many inter-related factors. Of the many variables studied by earlier researchers, it was found that moral acceptability was an important predictor or sometimes referred to as ‘a veto’ of support for biotechnology. The purpose of this paper is to examine how Muslims in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia perceive the general ethical aspects of modern biotechnology and specific ethical aspects of genetically modified (GM) rice containing an animal gene. Results from the survey of 213 respondents have shown high mean scores for two general biotechnology ethic dimensions: the need for labelling, and patenting rights, and moderate mean scores for five general ethic dimensions: risks to human health, the threat to natural order of living things, market monopoly by giant companies and developed countries, the wrongness in modifying living things and confidence in government regulation. The mean scores for familiarity and acceptance of the ethical aspect of GM rice were below the mid-point value of 4.0 while the mean score for the factor denying the benefits of GM rice to society if it is not developed, was about the mid-point value of 4.0 and the respondents perceived GM rice as having moderate risks.