GATTACA

Have you ever seen the movie GATTACA? I actually had never even heard of it up until my bio teacher brought it up. Personally when she was describing it I thought it would be a nerdy sci-fi type of movie, which is a genre that I am not really into. BUT - To my surprise, when we watched the movie, it turned out to be really good! The story had a great plot and a wonderful theme. So, shout out to Mrs. S, for opening my eyes to such a wonderful movie! :)

But anyway, onto the questions about the movie. Here goes...

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages to having a society like that portrayed in GATTACA?

 

Three advantages of the GATTACA world are that you have the chance to give your child the best chance of living, and the best chance of leading a successful life. Another is that since the people have good genes they can operate things more successfully in their jobs. Lastly in the GATTACA world they can live a long time, and be healthy throughout that long life. Three disadvantages are that since there is a chance to have a “perfect” employee no one hires an invalid, even though they could still to as much hard work needed. Another negative aspect is that there are no surprises in life, you know when you are going to die and you know from what. You know if you are going to get a disease and what that disease might be. And lastly would be that there wouldn’t be much personality in the community of people. If they all were “perfect” then nothing would be interesting.

2.If you were able to exclude the eccentric, the different, the misfits, and the weak, what would happen to society?

To be honest, I think society would turn out to be much more boring than it is right now. I personally believe that the different, the misfits, and the eccentric make our world worth living. They are different because we have that choice to be. I would much rather be different than the same as everyone else. (I probably am a little eccentric now anyway. ;) I think that society would eventually collapse because they would have no one to look up to since they all are the same, and I think that life would be so much more less interesting if we only had "valids" in society.

3. What limits should be placed on genetic engineering? Should it be allowed at all? Should it be limited to the elimination of disease and physical imperfections? Why or why not?

I don't think that genetic engineering should be completely banished. I think it is a wonderful thing that we can now make cure someone from a disease before they even deal with it. I do think that it should have some restrictions though, why? Because if we didn't the world would have so many "perfect" people that we would have nothing to strive for. I think that it should only be allowed to cure serious diseases, because I know that no one would want their child to go through that. But that is the only thing that I think genetic engineering should be used for. I think it is kind of shallow to pick out your child's physical appearance, I think that a parent should be happy no matter what their child does look like. I also don't think that they should make any changes effecting the mental capability of the child. I believe that you still need to try hard to get where you are. I don't think that it  should just be given to you.

All in all I think that this was a great movie choice, and it really brought to attention what the negative aspects of genetic engineering are. We are actually coming really close to being able to change genetics like they did in GATTACA. So, I think that this movie is great to see how horrible (or wonderful) the genetic engineering can be.