Preview

Genetics In The Movie Gattaca

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
382 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Genetics In The Movie Gattaca
Genetics is an intellectual interest of mine. I was first attracted to genetics by a documentary about Neanderthals. Although the documentary itself wasn't on genetics, it mentioned how some humans have a percentage of Neanderthal genes in them. I found this incredibly interesting that our genes could be traced back in history. I was further interesting about genetics was that one could have genetic mutations. This led me to wonder if maybe there are people in the world with genetic mutations that made them something similar to the mutants in X-Men. There are so many possibilities with genes that I want to discover. In the movie Gattaca, there are babies that are designed by manipulating their genes to the whims of their parents. I was amazed

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Gattaca, a film whose roots are firmly planted in the Science Fiction genre, the timeline in which the movie is set is never really stated, thus it could be next year, in another ten, or not for one hundred. While this is effective is making us believe that this could be, "just around the corner", the society presented is widely regarded as being too close to our present day in order to present a true chilling image. With DNA testing already quite common in the sporting world and in what the movie centers around, space exploration, Gattaca arguably fails to deliver its message with enough force to severely impact on the psyche of viewers.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The essay “Building Baby from the Genes Up” by Ronald M. Green explains how in the future, parents might be able to design the genes of their future baby. Green supports genetic engineering of embryos, “why not improve our genome?” (549). He thinks that with the process of in vitro and preimplantation, it could eliminate disease or confer desirable features onto our future. Some medical professionals is concerned about the effect of genetic selection in parenting, Green said “The critics concerns may be less troublesome than they appear”, he thinks that parents will not love their children any less in the quest of perfection, and any kids will not be pressured to live up to perfectionist and expectation.…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    b1 revision notes

    • 1860 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Genes are found in our chromosomes,which parents pass on to offspring in their sex cells in reproduction. Different versions of the same gene are called alleles, and these can determine features like eye colour, and the inheritance of disorders such as cystic fibrosis.…

    • 1860 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gattaca Research Paper

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Essay #3: Gattaca The human genome project is a great scientific advance but is society ready for it? Gattaca is a futuristic film that portrays the social ramifications of the problems of the project. We have to be very cautious and restrictive on how we use these new advances or we will turn into 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…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The film Gattaca is an American film that premiered in 1997, about a future society where babies are conceived through genetic manipulation to ensure that they possess “favorable” traits. The film is about Vincent Freeman, who was born outside of genetic manipulation and faces genetic discrimination because of it. Gattaca takes place in the not so distant future where eugenics, the practice of “improving” genetic quality is common. In this society, there is a database that classifies those as “valid” who are genetically modified and those conceived naturally and thus are more susceptible to genetic complications as “invalid”. Genetic discrimination is technically illegal in this society but similarly to racial discrimination in our own society…

    • 2232 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Genetics affect who you will grow to be in many ways. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the language of life that is within every living thing, genetic instructions that form what we will become. There is still much of the language that scientists don’t understand, but after extensive research scientists have found that certain gene codes actually relate to increased chances of developing a cancer or disease. We only have to look at family medical histories to know that is true, some diseases are clearly more common in families than in unrelated people. But whether a genetic predisposition actually makes a person ill depends on the interaction between genes and the environment. For example you are much more likely to develop lung cancer within your lifetime if your parents/grandparents have had it; it is likely that you have been handed down a gene that increases your risk of developing it. However if you smoke regularly and do little exercise then you are putting yourself at an increased risk of developing it sooner and more rapidly. Genetics also affect our appearances, body shape and how tall we can become. Half our chromosomes come from our mother and the other from our father. Our appearances tend to more or less a mix of our mother and fathers however some of our attributes of appearance may be similar to our grandparents. As genes can sometimes seemingly ‘miss a generation’ but the genes are still passed down just not aesthetically visible. Our genes also affect the timing of when puberty occurs, but environmental factors such as nutrition also have an effect.…

    • 3063 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    While it’s tempting to pay for a designer baby it is reminiscent of creating a “master race”. If people are allowed to create the perfect child, what happens to the unique qualities and diversified population? I feel that is order for the human race to survive we need a wide spectrum of genetic differences.…

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    People can genetically change their children in the womb. Parents will pick traits that they believe will be best for their children. People will pick traits that will make their children the best people possible. Parents will make their children be smart, kind, respectful, attractive looking and honest are just some of the many examples…

    • 1509 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Genetic modification is becoming closer and closer to an everyday possibility. With this possibility comes a whirlwind of possible effects, both positive and negative. There has been a history of opposition towards these technologies, oftentimes because of fear that the capabilities would be abused. However, the potential that newborns could be born free of hereditary diseases outweighs the fear of “designer babies”.…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Genetics

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    c. What is the role of DNA, mRNA and tRNA and amino acids in protein synthesis?…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the testing of genetic engineering furthers on animals, the testing will eventually go onto humans. One of the major subjects of discussion is "Designer-Babies". These are babies that have genetically designed almost from scratch. This will allow parents to have their children be born with more capabilities than others. These ideas derive from Danielle Simmons, a Ph.d and genius in the field of Genetic engineering. Those ideas present a very real possibility for where things may go with genetic engineering. It is not unlikely at all for babies to start getting genetically engineered to fit what the parents would like their child to be like. It is entirely likely that this will become a large market with people all over the world having…

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Porphyria Research Paper

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Genes are the reason why everyone has a unique identity. They control everything from hair and eye color, to dexterity and voice timbre. When a baby is conceived, these genes from the parents combine and come together to form a new formation of genes and DNA. So what happens if something goes wrong? If something does go wrong, it results in a genetic disease. For example, if someone is affected by an autosomal dominant disorder, they have a 50 percent chance of passing the mutated gene to their child. (2)…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Genetics play a large part in the biological approach. Genetics is the study of the genetic makeup of organisms and how genes influence physical and behavioural characteristics. Genes interact with the environment and influence bodily function and structure. There are many different types of gene research such as; Genetic mapping where the genes responsible of each behaviour and function are tracked, genetic engineering where the genetic code is altered to change or eliminate a function or to measure the effects on behaviour and selective breeding where the genetic code is manipulated to produce a prime specimen within a species. Genes contribute to the genotype of an individual. The genotype is the genetic makeup of an individual. An individual’s presentations of characteristics or phenotype are influenced greatly by their genotype. However phenotype is also affected by the environment. Thomas…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Genetics play a vital role in our development and that of our children. Our genetic make-up, or traits, directly affects our children’s development, from the moment of conception and the beginnings of a new person, throughout his or her life. The child’s developmental fate is all in the deoxyribonucleic acid, (DNA). Deoxyribonucleic acid, is fashioned in the shape of a double helix; a twisted ladder of genetic code, which along with various proteins, which are essential to aid the DNA in proper cell division, are found in chromosomes. These are the microscopic structures that contain all an individual’s genetic information which are found in every cell of the human body except red blood cells, which have no nuclei (TGC, 2013). Half our chromosomes (23) come from our father, and the other half from our mother, for a total of 46. Together, this set of 23 pairs of chromosomes is responsible for giving us our hair color, eye color, height, the shape of our earlobes, our facial features, our shape, and the color of our skin; our genotype, or inherited traits from both parents’ genes (Mossler, 2011). Child development is dependent on genetics and the compatibility and health of the combined parental sets of chromosomes (GSLC, n.d).…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Genetic and Development

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Genetic code of humans is the result of the combination of a mother’s ovum and father’s sperm into a unique cell which will turn into trilllions of them (Mossler, 2011). Each cell is a chromosome containing genetic information. Cells contain a nucleus with 23 pairs of chromosomes composed of DNA, and genes are parts of DNA containing hereditary data (Mossler, 2011). Genes in the 46 chromosomes inside our cells mark the development and function of every system in our body (Gupka, Kabra, & Deka, 2010). Each child will have half his or her genes from each parent. Genotypes such as height, eye color, shape of the earlobe, and hairline will be inheritated from the parents, once genotypes such as intelligence and motor skills interact with the environment observable behaviors or phenotypes will be produced (Mossler, 2011). For instance, the phenotype for skin color will be determined by a number of genes, “traits and diseases are determined…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays