Jobert C.

Ramo
BSCpE-1I College Of Engineering

“Gattaca” Reflection Movie

GATTACA was a pretty interesting movie. I think that there’s a lot of things in that movie that are gonna happen in real
life in the future. I view it like I view the original Star Trek movies. In Star Trek, some things didn’t exist then, and they
exist now in common daily life, like motions sensor doors, touch screen devices, devices you can talk to, and memory
drives. I mean, all of that was in Star Trek first, and now it’s a normal thing to see. So, in terms of GATTACA, I can see
people becoming paranoid about their genes, and what kind of traits they were most likely going to have or not have.
It’s sad to say, but I can see that happening shortly.

Now, a couple of good things about that, are that we could all but eliminate diseases caused by genetics and make a
race of superhumans. Like how they said in GATTACA with the second baby that we saw become a baby, they eliminated
all genes which could cause defects or weaknesses, and how they put the genes which would help him or give him an
advantage into his fetus. I find that interesting and disturbing at the same time, because if that happens, like it looks like
it’s going to, then everyone will truly be judged by their DNA and not what they think they can do.

A couple of negative things that could come out a future with DNA supremacy are how there wouldn’t be any genetic
differences after a couple hundred years, and people would mindlessly hate those that were of lesser DNA than
themselves. I think that DNA differences would reduce until their gone is because most people would want the same
‘type’ of a child, and after all of the genes that caused weakness were weeded out, then people would all become the
same, whether their babies were genetically engineered or not. Also, as is shown in the movie, those who were not of
genetic breeding were mindlessly hated because they had certain weaknesses that their parents could have avoided.

I don’t think this is an ethical future at all, because you shouldn’t be able to choose what genetic traits your child has. I
think it should be left up to nature as to what happens with our genetic ‘advantages’ and whatnot, because nature does
a pretty good job on its own, if you think about it. And by the time everyone was essentially the same, there wouldn’t be
anything left to do with ourselves. We would become a genetically ‘perfect’ race which would only have genetically
‘perfect’ children, and we’d be scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to what genes we can still give to people
to make them even the slightest bit different. This isn’t ethical because it would eliminate nearly all sense of
individuality, and make us all the same on the inside. That’s crap, if you ask me.

And of course, there would be profiling and judging. Heck, even in today’s ‘sophisticated’ society, there’s still profiling
and judgment being passed around. Humans will do that until the end of time, because human nature is a static thing,
no matter where you go or what time you’re in. Even people back in Shakespeare’s time were like us, even though they
spoke a version of English that is almost impossible to understand these days. Anyway, my point is, people will be
people, and we are not a nice species. We will always use others for our gain. We’re all Slytherin on the inside, in a
sense.

With all of that being said, I conclude by saying that what happened GATTACA could happen soon, because there are a
lot of advances being made in DNA technology that allows us to get complete profiles of people quicker and easier than
ever. And the fact that we already understand so much about the genes and what they do to us, means that we truly are
not far from that sort of ‘utopian’ society, which is truly sad. I wouldn’t want to be judged by what the facts say will most
likely happen to me because of my genes. I wouldn’t want to be judged on what science says I’ll probably be able to do.
I’d want to be seen for what I have done, and what I will be determined to do, no matter how much people deny that I
should. Denial may be a powerful thing, but I know that determination is even more powerful, because it is infused with
hope. And I hope that this never comes to pass. I’m determined to be who I want to be, not what my blueprint says I’ll
be.