Abstract News media coverage of biotechnology issues offers a rich source of fictional portrayals, with stories drawing strongly on popular imagery and metaphors in descriptions of the powers and dangers of biotechnology. This article examines how science fiction metaphors, imagery and motifs surface in British newspaper (broadsheet and tabloid) coverage of medical genetic issues, focusing on press reporting of two recent highly publicised news media events; namely, the Hashmi and Whitaker families' plights to use stem cells from a ‘perfectly matched sibling’ for the treatment of their diseased children. It is concerned in particular with the extent to which journalists' use of certain literary devices encourages preferred formulations of medical genetics, and thereby potentially shapes public deliberation about scientific developments and their consequences for society. Understanding how science fiction sustains science fact, and vice versa, and how the former is portrayed in news media, it is argued, would thus seem to be crucial in the effort to understand why people respond so strongly to biotechnologies, and what they imagine their consequences to be.

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科幻小说/科学事实：新闻报道中的医学遗传学

摘要 新闻媒体对生物技术问题的报道提供了丰富的虚构描绘来源，其中的故事在描述生物技术的力量和危险时强烈使用流行的意象和隐喻。本文研究了科幻隐喻、意象和主题如何出现在英国报纸（大报和小报）对医学遗传问题的报道中，重点是最近两次广为宣传的新闻媒体事件的新闻报道；也就是说，Hashmi 和 Whitaker 家族的困境是使用来自“完美匹配的兄弟姐妹”的干细胞来治疗他们患病的孩子。它特别关注记者使用某些文学工具在多大程度上鼓励医学遗传学的首选公式，从而可能影响公众对科学发展及其对社会的影响的审议。理解科幻小说如何维持科学事实，反之亦然，以及前者如何在新闻媒体中被描绘，据认为，因此似乎对于理解为什么人们对生物技术反应如此强烈，以及他们想象他们后果是。