Gattaca has a particularly strong resonance for me than for most. There are many things to be hated in this film- a whole new form of discrimination for one. We see people judged by their potential instead of their drive or their actual ability. Discrimination is detestable of course, and I believe the greatest failing of humanity as a whole. I don't want to talk about that today, though. What about the premise of this movie as a whole? The pursuit of genetic perfection?
On its surface, conceiving a child in this manner seems cold, doesn't it. Creating a few perfect zygote candidates in a vial and asking you to pick your kid. Down to the skin, hair and eye color. Edit them like a doctored photograph. But, this doesn't fill me with the dislike that it seems it should.
This may be too much information about me, more than you might really need to know... but I have five genetic disorders. At fourteen, I was an honors and AP student, a competitive athlete in two sports, and a recreational athlete in many others- a soccer goalie, a show jumper, a black diamond skiing adrenaline junkie. When I was fifteen, I couldn't get out of bed without help. They told me that I would never graduate high school, and that college was laughable. Participating in sports again was as far off a dream as going to the stars.
But I wouldn't take no for an answer. I graduated from high school writing papers in bed- I got into college with excellent SAT scores even though I could barely walk to the testing room. I worked hard, fighting an uphill battle against everyone's expectations improving my mind and my body over time. I can't have everything back. I don't compete anymore, but I play soccer for fun, and this spring, for the first time in five years, I will get back on the horse- literally.
That journey was unbelievably hard - but I don't regret it. My body is my own, and the journey I had to take made me who I am. It taught me the value of so many things, how to find joy everywhere and take nothing for granted. It taught me humility, and stubborn determination where it would have been easier to give in. But it is nothing I would wish on anyone, ever.
If I could create my children in a vial, to guarantee that the burden ends with me, I would feel happier and more secure about bringing a life into this world. And that shouldn't be just me. If we could be certain that every child born will have no down syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, seizure disorders, attention deficit disorders, or in fact any disorders of the mind or body wouldn't that be a better world? How much suffering could be spared by such an advancement?
And then the hazier problem - what if we could take violent dispositions out of people? Wouldn't that too be for the best? We see suffering everywhere these days. People found murdered in their homes, muggings and rapes, bombings, wars.... on and on. What if we only had children who turned from anger and violence and desired peace and prosperity instead? Could we at last achieve a global peace by fixing ourselves? Gattaca's genetic tampering obviously didn't completely succeed the director was as modified as anyone else but he had a motive strong enough to over come his peaceful nature for ill. And yet, how many crimes could be prevented by people simply not wanting to commit them?
I'm not saying I want a world precisely like the one shown in Gattaca. I think a person's performance and 'inclination' should stand for itself. But what would be so bad about a world rid of genetic illnesses and predispositions for health problems? Wouldn't that world look better than this one now?
I look at the genetic engineering question the same way as you. Yes, eliminating really terrible diseases and disorders from society could be GREAT. Also, getting rid of negative personality traits that allow people to feel compelled to kill others would also be fantastic. But, the question I have is: where will people stop? Would we stop at making sure people are born without negative health problems or would we never stop and start making everyone better than normal? There are so many questions floating around in my mind with this issue and it kind of scares me to think about when and if I will find out what the limit is.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Erin. I think it would be a good idea for people who would really love to have children, but are afraid they would pass on their genetic illnesses. I completely understand why you would feel that this is a great idea. This would be an easy way to fix the problem. However, as we have seen with all utopias… what satisfies you now will not soon enough. People will create a perfect child. Then perfect will be normal, so they will need to make their child stand out in some better way. But what will that be? I think this is something to really consider before jumping all in on this possibility. All technological advances seem great at first, but you need to consider the cons of it too.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah, you raise some super-interesting questions.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you will have the opportunity to screen for genetic disorders if you plan to have children.
I think that a society that had the best of intentions would go beyond that and try to "fix ourselves" by eradicating violent dispositions. That brings us to the ongoing nature/nurture debate. As Vincent says, "There is no gene for fate" and you probably wouldn't have the qualities you h ave earned if you had not had the experiences you have endured.
What I am trying to say is that messing with genetics is a double-edged sword - by creating someone that does not have to work as hard to overcome some kind of shortcoming, you take away the incentive to build character and the ability to overcome obstacles. Then you have a population of pansies.
That said, if the science is there to screen out debilitation genetic conditions, I hope you can use it to give yourself and your family peace of mind.
Not too much information at all. I hope things go awesome with the horse. I think that eliminating genetic disorders from the population would be a great thing to do, if it was possible through some sort of ultra advanced in-vitro gene therapy. The other option, selective abortion, isn't quite as nice.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about taking violent tendencies out of people. Unless you did it to everyone, some people might not be able to fight back if they got attacked. And forcing parents to alter their babies genes would get pretty ugly. Utopias are hard. Every answer brings like six questions.
I absolutely agree. Every time you come up with one potential improvement, you have to worry about how people will misuse it and why. I think we have to become better people as a whole in a natural way before we can start experimenting with this.
DeleteToday the idea is eliminating disease, but in three seconds it would become making the super soldier, because that is where our society and culture is right now.