In the movie Gattaca the main character Anton was discriminated against because of his gene makeup. Anton never even had a chance in the society in Gattaca because the potential employees of companies were not tested on their skills or knowledge but on their physical and mental possibilities. The same society also used derogatory terms for people like Anton.
Just because his parents decided that he would come into the world naturally instead of through gene therapy or alteration. Terms like “faith birth” and “invalid” were used against Anton. I think gene therapy has it promises, but when used in the fashion as it was used in the Gattaca I think its progress should be carefully monitored. Right now sheep and other animals are being cloned. Soon primates and Humans could be cloned.
I think we should further investigate human cloning for research on the parenting process and other physiological experiments that can only be used now on identical twins separated at birth. These experiments when used could be used to gain insight on what our genes determine in our personalities. I also think that the achievement of us humans cloning ourselves would be a great achievement for the entire human race such as it was when we landed on the moon in 1969. In the movie Gattaca they barely showed the moral consequences of the actions. Anton’s father showed more pride in his brother than Anton, but what about Anton making friends, was he doomed to be a social outcast in friendships also? The second rate swimmer so depressed by being second in a race almost committed suicide, what about him? The movie never revealed how poor nations around the world dealt with eventually becoming a nation of an inferior human race. The movie pretty much shows how Hitler’s plan of creating a perfect human race would be like.
The movie does show some positives though. A longer lifetime full of health was promised to all planned pregnancies. Diseases were also virtually eliminated and gene problems where also stopped. The crime solving potential of having every ones gene son file were also showed. Such technology could be used however with out cloning or genetic altering.
Weighing all these positives and negatives though is not a choice for me or anyone else, but a choice for future generations to come when they have the technology and choice whether to decide if it is needed or right for their time. .
