GATTACA

I watched the movie GATTACA which is about a man named Vincent Freeman who was born naturally into a now genetically-enhanced world. Now, when you are born, the likelihood of disease and life expectancy are ascertained at birth. Myopic, due to die at age 30, and with a 99% chance of heart problems, Vincent does not have the opportunity to demonstrate his brains because he does not have the genes. Instead of discrimination against different races or religions, people are discriminated against based on their genetic make-up. Similar to the untouchables in India's caste system, people who are born the old-fashioned way, often called "Invalids," are at the bottom of society's hierarchy. So, Vincent goes underground and assumes the identity of a crippled "Valid" named Jerome Morrow. He uses Jerome's skin, hair, blood, and urine to constantly pass DNA tests so that he work at Gattaca Corp. and fulfill his lifelong dream: to embark on a manned mission to Saturn's 14th moon. With only weeks away from his launch date, the mission director is murdered and the police suspect Vincent Freeman (from an eyelash found in a hallway). Vincent now has to keep himself from arousing the police's attention while maintaining his fake identity while passing all of the random DNA tests.

Although this movie was not in the horror genre, it scared me. Not only does the world of GATTACA seem like something that might actually happen, but it seems like it already has in a way. We don't have rockets launching to Mars as often as air crafts, but certain groups of people have attempted to "purify" the world many different times. The Rwandan genocide is representative of this idea because of the Hutu's attempt to exterminate the Tutsi ethnic group. Another example is are the Nazis and their discrimination. GATTACA takes this idea of purification and prejudice to a whole new level. It is a believable world because technology is advancing every day; it's something that could ultimately ending up hurting the human race instead of helping them.

Vincent was born naturally, but his brother was genetically engineered. There was a scene in the movie where his parents had a consultation with a doctor in which they picked the gender of their baby-to-be and what diseases or disorders they did not want him to contract. They said that they wanted to leave some things up to chance, such as his hair and eye color. But at this point, did that really matter? This baby was not going to be organic anyways. This movie provided a lot of insight into what the world has the potential to one day be and it will be beneficial to taking a stance on this issue.