Gattaca

The genes in the human body have been completely mapped out in Gattaca and they can produce the perfect babies. They have the technology available to remove diseases or enhance looks and abilities. Arthur Caplan in his article “The Brave New World of Babymaking,” describes Gattaca’s baby assembly line, “[…] parents can go further, choose hair color, height, and even intelligence, they [are] consciously engineering human beings” (89). The manipulation of genes that is in Gattaca is the same consumer fashion that people undergo now in liposuction or wearing tinted contact lenses. You were not normal if you are a faith birth or God child; you were the minority. Vincent, a faith birth, faced great challenges in life compared to his brother Antawn who was genetically enhanced. You have to be a perfect baby to be recognized in Gattaca.

Nobody knows the real truth of what a perfect baby is; they just have their

Gattaca was not the only place where you were genetically screened but also in the social aspect. John Leo claims that "[t]his may sound cold blooded, but many young people already routinely check out the sexual history of a prospective partner and presumably will have no more compunctions about checking out the genetic history as well"(2). In Gattaca, genetic information about someone is easily accessible; there are booths set up where you can bring a hair particle or saliva sample to get screened in a matter of minutes. The way you find friends or a significant other should have nothing to do of what genes they are composed of. You were judged on what rating you received to see if you were a good catch or eligible for a certain position. Your genetic history should be kept private instead of public so that you can make your judgments on the person’s character instead of genes.

The human genome project should be used for the good of the public, instead of the good of the wealthy. Martone declares that “[t]echnology must always be used to benefit the human person, and its definition of the human person includes social and spiritual will-being as will as biological well-being” (83). We have to be careful on how we use our scientific advances. Gattaca is what happens when genes become the main theme in life. We should strive to make these advances but develop social policy to eliminate the vicious cycle of problems Gattaca encounters.

The pressure placed on having superior genes was s

Some topics in this essay:
John Leo, Paul Billings, DNA Billings, World Babymaking”, , Brad Evenson, Marilyn Martone, Catherine Baker, Jerome Morrow, Arthur Caplan, super race, perfect baby, human person, human genome project, advances gattaca, gattaca genes, genes composed, genetically perfect, faith birth, genetic history, superior genes,