Gattaca Genetic Engineering Quotes

In the movie Gattaca, the doctor said that Vincent would have heart failure and was looked down upon because of his disability. In the society today people would not like to be without control of their own life. In the book Brave New World and in the film Gattaca, both societies use genetic engineering to create the character’s destiny without the approval of the beholder.

In the book Brave New World there is a genetics lab that creates the population instead of parents making their own children to create their destiny. There are different social classes that are produced in the lab to create leaders and followers. According to the book “...where the Alphas, Betas remained until definitely bottled; while the Gammas, Delta and Epsilons were

brought out again, after only thirty-six hours, to undergo the Bokanovsky’s Process” (Huxley 6).

This quote explains the social classes and how the genetic engineering is designed. It all starts from and egg and sperm and is bottled in a test tube and goes through a process called Bokanovsky’s Process. This process brings the test tubes through a large metal box and x-rayed for eight minutes. Some die, but the strong ones survive and divide into two and those divide. This creates more and more baby’s to populate the society and none of them have families. The Bokanovsky's process creates the baby’s destiny based on how they are developed. Also the book says “‘...Nothing like oxygen-shortage for keeping an embryo below par’” (Huxley 14). This is saying that the oxygen shortage slows the development of the embryo. This affects the growth and the lifespan of the human being, and the person has no say or choice of what they can be. Finally, in the book Brave New World “‘The lower the caste,’ said Mr. Foster, ‘the shorter the oxygen.’ The first organ affected was the brain. After that the skeleton. At seventy per cent of normal oxygen you got dwarfs. At less than seventy eyeless monsters” (Huxley 14). This is stating that the lower caste receives the least amount of oxygen. Which

affects the brain and decreases development and growth. Even less oxygen will lead to dwarfs and missing appendages. All of these defects create the lower caste and engineer their destiny. Genetic engineering is a big role in this society to give stabilization and equality. However, it does not give the human being the choice or opportunity to adventure out and be independent.
Similarly, in the movie Gattaca there is genetic engineering that will predict the child's future through their skills. During the movie there was a scene in a child birthing center with the parents of Vincent. In the movie Gattaca Vincent says, “My destiny was mapped out before me -- all my flaws, predispositions and susceptibilities - most untreatable to this day. Only minutes old, the date and cause of my death was already known” (Gattaca). This is stating that right out of birth just seconds of his first breath the genetic engineering has come so far that it tells him what day he is going to die and what his cause of death will be. This is huge with creating the person's own destiny. The doctor can say what day he is going to die and what he will die from. Also from Gattaca, “ You’ve already specified blue eyes, dark hair and fair skin. I have taken the liberty of eradicating any potentially prejudicial conditions- premature baldness, myopia, alcoholism, and addictive susceptibility, propensity for violence and obesity--” (Gattaca). This is stating how the geneticist can predict and change appearances and skills. It gives the future of a person’s life and what they will and will not struggle with. This is looking too far into the future and planning, human beings too much. Some people could grow out of all the defects, but they don’t know that because they believe in the science. Finally, from Gattaca, “I have to warn you Mr. Luca, he’s going to be at least a head taller than you. Prepare for a crick in the neck in sixteen years time” (Gattaca). This is more evidence about how geneticist can predict the future and change the way people’s life ends up. Genetic engineering is used to improve the skills that people are born with and create people’s destiny.
In both Brave New World and Gattaca uses genetic engineering to create people’s destiny and establish stability in the society. Through the labs in Brave New World with an egg and sperm in a bottle. And in Gattaca and the geneticist putting together people’s destiny. Brave New World and Gattaca are very similar to the process of genetic engineering and populating the society.