Published Paper Details:

This paper examines Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and Octavia Butler's Dawn (1987) as science-fictional thought experiments that interrogate the ethical, social, and ecological consequences of scientific intervention in life. Drawing on the interdisciplinary framework of Science, Technology, and Society (STS), along with concepts from bioethics and ecofeminism, the study explores how both texts critique scientific rationality when it operates without ethical responsibility. Shelley's Frankenstein, often regarded as the foundational work of modern science fiction, exposes the dangers of unchecked ambition and irresponsible experimentation, anticipating contemporary debates on cloning, artificial life, and bioengineering. Butler's Dawn, situated in a post-apocalyptic and posthuman context, extends this critique by examining genetic manipulation, hybridity, colonisation, and ecological symbiosis. While Shelley foregrounds individual responsibility and the moral limits of scientific inquiry, Butler complicates ethical judgment by framing survival as contingent upon compromise, interdependence, and the redefinition of the human. Together, these texts demonstrate how science fiction functions as a critical and pedagogical space for reflecting on ethical science, environmental sustainability, and the future of human and non-human life in an age of technological acceleration and ecological crisis.