Public perception of the ethical aspects of golden rice

Abstract

Golden Rice was developed by Germany Institute to solve the vitamin A deficiency problem. Carrot gene was inserted into rice to produce provitamin A via carotenoid biosynthesis. A set of questionnaire was distributed to the Malaysian citizens residing in the Klang Valley area. 237 respondents have completed the questionnaires comprising of the ethical aspects of golden rice. Results of factor analysis showed that there are four components or dimensions of ethical aspects of golden rice. The dimensions are ethical acceptance, risks, familiarity and denying benefits. Cronbach alpha values for the component are: ethical acceptance (0.851), risks (0.785), familiarity (0.804) and denying benefits (0.767), indicating this instrument has high reliability. From this study, it can be concluded that ethical aspects of golden rice comprise of four dimensions. These dimensions represent the ethical aspects of golden rice that has to be studied to assess the acceptance of golden rice by the Malaysian public. Moderate mean score were obtained for the ethical aspects of Golden Rice across groups of respondents.