From the day Vincent was born, he had always been concidered as highly flawed, and as an 'invalid'. His parents were planning on carrying on the family name with their first born child by calling Vincent, Anton, after his father, Antonio. However, once finding out that Vincent was prone to illness' such as neurological disorder, manic depression, attention deficit disorder, heart failure, and was expected to live for only 30.2 years, Vincent's father felt that he wasn't worthy of the family name, and decided to call him Vincent Anton instead. Mother and Father, Maria and Antonio had a second child, who Antonio felt was worthy of the family name, because unlike Vincent who was conceived the natural way, Anton was born through genetic engineering. As the two boys grew up, Anton was always considered superior to Vincent as he was always upstaging him at everything they did. Until one day, when the two boys played a game of chicken. Like usual, Anton was expecting Vincent to turn around and swim back to shore. However, no matter how much effort he put into trying to beat his brother, Anton and Vincent were neck and neck the whole swim. Anton was confused at how Vincent still had the energy to swim, and finally Anton wasn't able to go on any longer and he gave up. Passing out and starting to drown, Vincent saved his brother's life. For the first time in their lives, Vincent was better than Anton at something. Even though everybody believed that he wasn't good enough to acheive his goals, Vincent now believed that he could achieve anything that he set his mind to. Vincent decided to run away from home and he got a job as a janitor at Gattaca. This was his first glimpse of Gattaca, and he liked what he saw.…
Gattaca, directed by Andrew Niccol, shows a story of a society where life is controlled by genetics, rather than education or experiences. Based on your DNA, society determines where you belong, and your future. This allows no room for people to gain experiences and to grow, as they are confined to a specific lifestyle. It is evident however in the film that Vincent tries to violate societies’ structure, by playing the role of a navigator, using his blood samples and urine. George Orwell, the author of 1984, shows a similar concept, where life is controlled by the Party and where the main character, Winston, tries to defy the Party. Although it is obvious that both works have a dystopian society, the societies within it struggle to achieve a utopian society instead. Through its intense depiction of struggles to fit in and altering way of life to be accepted in society, Gattaca has enhanced the understanding of the impact that surveillance has in 1984 and how it has limited the people to prosper in life within society.…
By opening the movie Gattaca with quotations from Willard Gaylin and Ecclesiastes, director Andrew Niccol invites us to ponder the tension between science and religion with regard to the ethics of genetic engineering. This tension is further sustained through the complex relationship of the main protagonists Vincent and Eugene, who must ultimately conquer their own physical limitations in order to find ``God''.…
J. (2015). Cloning humans? Biological, ethical, and social considerations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(29), 8879-8886. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1501798112…
Gattaca is a story about the not-so-distant future, a time when genetic engineering is so common place that it is common practice. The world, of course, has the draw back that anyone who was not genetically engineered is part of new class of society, called an invalid.…
Searching for stem cell news on the internet reveals a never-ending amount of pages with web sites about breakthroughs in stem-cell research. Such articles included potential cures to diabetes, Parkinson's, leukemia, and various forms of cancer. This research could potentially lead to these terrible diseases' near end. In Andrew Niccol's Gattaca, a society is portrayed where there are no diseases due to advanced genetic engineering. This movie, based in the future, depicts couples that are able to basically hand-pick a perfect child. While modern technology has not evolved near as far as in Gattaca, stem-cell research is on the verge of creating a way to counter vicious diseases.…
Gattaca is a movie directed by Andrew Niccol and the film is set in the "not too distant future." Andrew Niccol's perception of the future isn't what most people expect, but once thought about carefully it seems quite believable. This movie presents us with a new method in which society strives for perfection and it also makes us wonder if genetic engineering is morally correct. Your place in society in Gattaca is based on your genetic makeup and the way you were born. People born the way we know as natural are "in-valids". On the other hand people born with the aid of genetic engineering are "valids." An "in-valid" has his future set out to be a cleaner or other insignificant job in society which doesn't require an education. A new form of prejudice has been recently debated about, which is the idea of having greater or second-rate genes.…
Researches and scientists may use cloned embryos to find cures for diseases. However, according to Boffey, the “risk that a cloned baby would be born with birth defects or face medical problems”is extremely high. It goes against all ethics to produce children that may be disabled for their whole lives. The idea of cloning children for the sole purpose of finding cures is similar to the idea of having children for the sole purpose of helping cure an older sibling. Both of these concepts involve selfishly bringing a child into the world and possibly ruining his life. These scientific ideas go against moral and ethical codes and will “turn children into manufactured products rather than independent…
GATTACA, a movie representing the flaws in the human code and having the option to have the perfect human being, takes place in a dystopian genre where the director Andrew Niccol takes our interpretation of the world and makes it a perfect society in the movie. The main character Vincent Freeman has always fantasized about traveling into outer space, but is grounded by his status as an "in-valid". He is told in the beginning of his life that he will only live upto the age of 30 causing him to be an invalid, which is the government's idea of not a perfect human being. He decides to fight his fate by purchasing the genes of Jerome Morrow, a laboratory-engineered "valid." He assumes Jerome's DNA identity and joins the Gattaca space program.…
In this film, several attempts to exploit our future are presented such as : extremely well engineered genetic programs, and advanced life expectancy machines. In this day and age people are solely judged upon their DNA; therefore, only the most elite candidates could stumble upon the throne of success. Throughout this story the following stood out the most, extreme genetic engineering, Intelligence, and nature vs. nurture. These three factors single handedly sum up the whole purpose of Gattaca and the life of a man named Vincent who lived as a man named Jerome.…
It seemed years ago that I was brought to this camp, brought to a life without my family, a life where I only cared for myself, a life where I was not truly living. It seemed I lived in this camp my whole life, it was hard to remember that it had only been 5 months.…
The 1997 science fiction drama film Gattaca by Andrew Niccol illustrates a dystopian world condemning genetic engineering which plays a primary role in determining whether the human being will be genetically superior or genetically inferior. Niccol utilizes his ‘degenerate’ protagonist, Vincent, to highlight the flaws of a system which encourages predeterminism over ambition and discrimination over acceptance. A society is presented where love has no value and one’s genetic make-up is more important than their intelligence and physicality.…
First of all, Fukuyama says that science is still not ready for the cloning process. One of the factors which is attributing to this is the fact that human DNA is too complex. Furthermore, scientists had over 200 failed attempts at cloning Dolly the sheep because they were finally successful. This indicates there will be a lot of complications in human cloning if and when it is ever attempted. Fukuyama says “the dangers greatly magnified in the case of genetic engineering, given the multiple causal pathways between genes and their ultimate expression in the phenotype (Fukuyama 677). The potential pain and suffering that a cloned human might go through is enough of a reason to not attempt cloning.…
The ethical issues presented in Gattaca are ethical egoism, psychological egoism, sacrifice and the possibilities of radical perfection. It challenged the worthiness of the consequences of extreme self serving efforts; to take risks; to do the impossible despite public opinion. These ethical issues are based on the main character, Vincent. He uses these ideologies to achieve his goal of perfection, defying the constant disapproval of his parents which alienated him as a child.…
In the world of GATTACA, a person’s future is determined by their DNA. I wouldn’t want to live in this world, because your future and personal like/personality, you, are already chosen, so you have no choice of want you want your future to be like. In the movie GATTACA, Vincent has a dream to go to space but he can’t because of his DNA sequence. So he decides to become someone else in order to get a good job and fulfill his dream. Jerome has perfect DNA but he is disabled, so he agrees to give his DNA (skin cells, hair, nail cells, etc.) to Vincent so he could live his dream.…