GATTACA

GATTACA is a science fiction story about a genetically imperfect human, Vincent, who dreams of going into space. He was one of the last natural-born individuals, with several inherited defects, including poor eyesight and a high probability of developing heart problem. Due to such genetic defect, he would refrain from traveling into space. Therefore, he decided to finance another man’s identity, that of Jerome Eugene who was a former athlete with top genetic background, to be allowed to get positioned to join a crew to space.

In not-too-distant future, genetics will play an important role in our life. Genetic sequence will become a part of our identity. We can generate a baby by selecting only good genes from parents to express only the perfect appearances and characteristics. After born, a baby will be tested and sequenced its DNA to evaluate the risks of certain diseases. These tasks are highly possible in the near future because at present, scientists have being kept going genetic researches related to human genome project to predict and evaluate genetic diseases. Many tasks to identify an individual will be based on the DNA sequencing.

However, the dystopia presented in the film is also a realistic possibility in the future. People may not be discriminated by races, but by the genetic sequences. People with imperfect DNA, including high risk or probability of developing certain diseases, might refrain from work because a company may tend to employ only “perfect” individuals. We can avoid this unfairness by accepting the differences and self-properties of each individual. We have to open our mind and really realize others’ rights and ambitions.