Ethical Issues In Gattaca Essay

Science has a way of evolving. As science evolves so do technologies that improve our life. However more scientific technologies being produced means more moral questions rising. Bringing these new advanced technologies to mankind can improve our life but also have a devastating effect on us. Throughout this essay I am going to talk about and compare the film Gattaca (1997) film to our bioethics book by Lewis Vaighin and discuss the main bio-ethical issues that are presented in the book and the film it self.

The film Gattaca shows us the dangers of uncontrolled technology. This film is about a society where if your genes are great you can have a successful life. Human nature triumphing over a society in which perfect DNA is the only measure of success. Those who are genetically engineered to

perfection before birth become the elite class who are termed "valid" in which success is almost guaranteed. However Vincent being born out of love is genetically imperfect which he is labeled as “in-valid”. But Vincent wants to prove to the society he is in not any different from those elite people that were created in-vitro. He is determent to show the elite that he can just be as successful and equal as the other people and it is show t throughout the movie. Vincent however is diagnosed with a heart problem and wont live above the age 30. He fakes his identity. Elite named Jerome who helps him out to succeed. This whole movie is concentrated on genoism and how a person is not looked at how he is, but rather how his genes are.
Back to the book, Chapter 9 basically covers the terms of genes and genetic testing, gene therapy and how it applies in our world. This chapter mentions how you can test out your genes to see if you have a disease, also this leads to genetic discrimination too. Many of the concepts discussed in this chapter also bring up many moral questions including morality of practicing positive genes. This chapter also talks about how these terms apply to major philosophical theories like Kantian and Utilitarian. What I am trying to get to is that this movie and the film share many similar ideas and bio-ethical issues that I am going to talk about next.
In the movie Gatteca one of the main ethical issues that caught attention was genetically improving your child.

Vincent has a brother named Antonio after Vincent was born when the parents realized he was “invalid” based on their societies criteria the parents decided to create a child in-vitro by making the perfect baby. Ensuring that this child has a bright future ahead of him. However for me this raises many bioethical questions. Like what if the child doesn’t want to? What about Vincent does the parents look at him with pity because he isn’t the perfect child. Another main question is who gives them the right to play God when it comes to deciding such a things and altering the genes of a person forever? Do they know the long effect of this? How many generations will this last? In Gattaca the world is destroyed; there is a new underclass that is discriminated upon and not given a chance to succeed in the world. This civilization is so concerned with creating the “perfect” civilization. What about the”in-valids”? They don’t get a chance to succeed in life because their genes weren’t perfect and that now you can create a baby and gift him with perfect genes?

Immoral.
In the real world however going back to the book on chapter 9, there were similar issues that relate to the movie too. You could improve someone’s genes by doing gene therapy where there is an attempt to fix/replace someone’s genes in order to give them better way of living. Permanently altering someone’s genes doesn’t that sound wrong? If this goes wrong one of the side effects is that you’ll permanently change someone’s life forever and the generations that follow afterwards. Now in the book it might be a different, but the book and the film have a connection regarding this bio ethical issue.
Another issues that caught my attention were genetic discrimination. The whole movie revolves around this issue. Because Vincent is not genetically fit to work in the job he dreamed, he pretends to be someone in order to obtain what he wants. Genoism is a big key in this movie. He takes on the persona of an athlete who was injured in an accident and uses his DNA to move up in society. If you are not blessed with good genes than your life is basically over. You are not fit to live as this movie puts out; you are alienated and called “in-valid”
Chapter 9 also shares the same concept about this issue, this chapter talks about how companies use gene testing to rule out “weak candidates” for the job. Therefore people are scared to get tested because they are worried it might affect their jobs in some way. The film might be a bit extreme when it comes to gene discrimination but the chapter and the movie have similar ideas and how they discriminate against people with genes, which you can’t control. They are given to you. Besides its illegal to do it anymore but it indeed brings up many ethical questions.
Reading the chapter first and the movie afterwards made me understand the terms better; close with altering genes and genoism. The movie seems as it was like filmed yesterday. It’s more of a philosophical film. The author of this film has thought this out very cleverly; because I believe in few decades there will be such as things that happened in the film. It was pretty interesting learning about how this society functions and what they value (perfect genes) and obviously a rebel like Vincent did show those elitist that you can be juts as successful without the genes. The book this chapter is basically for me was a stepping-stone into the film. As I finished reading the book I understood the film way deeper and clearly. If I didn’t read chapter 9 and watch the movie I would just consider it a very cool fantasy movie, which it was but it was more of a bio-philosophical movie, which made me think critically throughout the movie.
All these concepts that I discussed will probably be real issues in years to come. But just one thing to remember. It doesn’t matter if you have the perfect genes or not, its about the person you are. Vincent was very determent and motivated to work at Gatteca and he did. He also reached his goal, which was flying into space. Also that time when he beat his “altered” brother Antonio who had perfect genes, while Vincent faced heart problems. Vincent was one of a kind. Moral of the story, you can be different and still achieve what you want.