Gattaca Philosophical Analysis
Michael Zaboski
HUM424
Week 7 Paper
Philosophical Paper: Gattaca
What will it be like in a not-so-distant future society where your life started with your parents designing your genes? After screening for unwanted genetic diseases, they select your sex, height, eye color, hair color, skin tone, and select from a menu of temperament, intelligence and occupational categories, all designed to place you in a clearly defined social class according to your degree of genetic enhancement. (Epstein)
The film Gattaca, a 1997 science-fiction prediction directed by Andrew M. Niccol, serves as a pictorial essay of the struggles and conflicts that befall two opposite characters, one “superior” genetically engineered valid and one “inferior” natural …show more content…
Refusing to accept his fate, he buys the genes of a superior being from a black marketer, undergoes a transformation, and assumes the identity of Jerome, who is a genetically engineered athlete plagues by feelings of self-destructions because he cannot be the best at what he was “programmed” for. Jerome, because of his own inadequacies, agrees to help Vincent in his quest, but as we are later to find out in the final scene of the film, it comes at a very high price: his own …show more content…
Where is the line of acceptability between preventing severe birth defects or diseases on the one hand and genetically engineering a homogenous race of “perfect” humans on the other? The sale of superior genomes that guarantee living longer, growing taller, and jumping higher will be the supermarket of tomorrow. The sale of germ line engineering will certainly not be free. Will it create a new genetic gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots”? (Designer Babies-Ethics) The suicide of Jerome is Niccols way of saying that even “perfect” humans have flaws and that despite all the advancements in technology, we may eradicate unwanted diseases and undesirable human traits, but we still might not be any
HUM424
Week 7 Paper
Philosophical Paper: Gattaca
What will it be like in a not-so-distant future society where your life started with your parents designing your genes? After screening for unwanted genetic diseases, they select your sex, height, eye color, hair color, skin tone, and select from a menu of temperament, intelligence and occupational categories, all designed to place you in a clearly defined social class according to your degree of genetic enhancement. (Epstein)
The film Gattaca, a 1997 science-fiction prediction directed by Andrew M. Niccol, serves as a pictorial essay of the struggles and conflicts that befall two opposite characters, one “superior” genetically engineered valid and one “inferior” natural …show more content…
Refusing to accept his fate, he buys the genes of a superior being from a black marketer, undergoes a transformation, and assumes the identity of Jerome, who is a genetically engineered athlete plagues by feelings of self-destructions because he cannot be the best at what he was “programmed” for. Jerome, because of his own inadequacies, agrees to help Vincent in his quest, but as we are later to find out in the final scene of the film, it comes at a very high price: his own …show more content…
Where is the line of acceptability between preventing severe birth defects or diseases on the one hand and genetically engineering a homogenous race of “perfect” humans on the other? The sale of superior genomes that guarantee living longer, growing taller, and jumping higher will be the supermarket of tomorrow. The sale of germ line engineering will certainly not be free. Will it create a new genetic gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots”? (Designer Babies-Ethics) The suicide of Jerome is Niccols way of saying that even “perfect” humans have flaws and that despite all the advancements in technology, we may eradicate unwanted diseases and undesirable human traits, but we still might not be any