Movie Review – Gattaca (Customizable Humans: Human Progress or the Seed of Misery?)

The movie Gattaca depicts a future of genetically engineered, customized humans. Vincent, the main character, is born a natural person and fulfills his dreams against genetic discrimination. The movie shows that the rise of customized humans could lead to a gap between the rich and poor and quality of life issues.

 

Andrew Niccol’s film Gattaca (Gattaca, 1997) is set in a future where “customized humans” can be created by manipulating the genes of fertilized eggs in vitro. Based on the information provided in the movie, the protagonist is the “first generation of personalized humans,” which was not possible in his parents’ generation. The movie was made in 1997 and depicts a futuristic society that is entirely possible due to advances in biology. The plot of the movie is as follows
In the near future, advances in biology allow us to give birth to children with the traits we want. Vincent, the protagonist of the movie, is a “natural person” born without genetic manipulation. At birth, his genetic information tells us about his life expectancy, as well as the probability of having neurological diseases, depression, concentration problems, heart problems, etc. Vincent is born with a 99% chance of having a heart condition and a life expectancy of 30.2 years. Because of his bad genes, he is uninsurable and unacceptable to educational institutions. Vincent’s dream is to become a space navigator, but his genes make that impossible. Although it is illegal to discriminate based on genetic information, companies can easily find out about an applicant’s genetic information using methods such as urine tests, so Vincent’s dreams are repeatedly thwarted.
The movie follows Vincent’s younger brother, Anton, who is also a customized human. Ever since they were children, Vincent and his brother Anton have been competing in the ocean to see who can swim the farthest, and Anton always wins because he is more physically fit. Until one day, Vincent wins, and this event inspires Vincent to leave home in search of his dream.

 

 

After leaving home, Vincent begins his life as a janitor, which is almost the only job that a natural person can do. He works as a janitor at Gattaca, an aerospace company where he can fulfill his dreams. While cleaning for Gattaca, Vincent meets Jerome, a man with superior genes who was paralyzed in an accident, and through an intermediary, Vincent passes off Jerome’s genes as his own and gets a job at Gattaca. Through his own efforts and Jerome’s genes, he passes the various tests to become an astronaut, and after many twists and turns, the movie ends with him traveling to space. The movie depicts how Vincent, a natural person living in the first generation of customized humans, uses Jerome’s genes to overcome competition from other customized humans and eventually fulfill his dream.

 

 

There are a number of issues that could arise if a real-world customized human were to be introduced, but two important ones have already been solved in the movie. I’ll briefly mention which problems are solved in the movie, and then present my arguments based on the assumption that they are solved in the discussion that follows. The two problems are as follows First, there are no limits to genetic engineering. The technology for personalized humans, which is briefly shown in the movie when Vincent’s parents decide on Anton, involves fertilizing a sperm and egg in vitro and analyzing the genes of the fertilized egg to fix the problematic parts. If we have the technology to fix a specific part of DNA, and we have information about what traits a specific part of DNA represents, we can determine that we can create a child with the exact genes we want. So for the purposes of this discussion, we will assume that in the first generation of personalized humans, parents can have a child with the exact genes they want.
Second, there is no mention of the cost of creating a customized human. When Vincent’s parents decide on Anton, they don’t discuss the cost with the doctor at all. However, given that natural humans in the movie can only have jobs like janitor, and that there is a facility that gives you a score for your genes if you carry certain genes, it is reasonable to assume that the manufacturing of a customized human is costly, and that the cost will increase as we do more genetic manipulation to get better genes. Therefore, in the following discussion, I will assume that there is a cost to manipulating genes, and that the cost increases as we do more manipulation.
Under both of these assumptions, I am opposed to customized humans. The first reason to oppose customized humans is the widening gap between rich and poor. In order to get good genes, it is important to have the genes of the original parents, but it is also important to fix the parts of their genes that are not good. Since such manipulations are sure to cost money, people from economically wealthy groups will create children with better genes, and people with good genes will be more likely to succeed. Therefore, the gap between rich and poor will accelerate with the advent of personalized humans.
The second argument against personalized humans is the decreased quality of life for humans with bad genes. Natural people will exist whether they want to or not. Like Vincent in the movie, it’s entirely possible for parents to choose to have a child naturally, or for it to happen unplanned. In either case, a natural child has limited opportunities from birth. Because there are differences in gene quality between natural and custom humans, opportunities are limited by the quality of the genes. This is well illustrated in the movie Irene. Irene is a customized human, but her heart is not good enough to take her to the solar system. Genetic differences can be overcome through hard work, but it”s not easy. This is evidenced by the fact that most of the gold medals in sprinting are currently won by black people. In the movie, Vincent eventually realizes his dream, but not without cheating his genes. Even without the existence of personalized humans, biology would still be able to identify genetically superior people, so you might think that the quality of life for people with bad genes would decline regardless of the existence of personalized humans. However, if in the absence of personalized humans, opportunities are available to those who are not genetically superior, then in a world with personalized humans, if there are enough people with superior genes, those with inferior genes will be denied many opportunities.
The final argument against customized humans is the decrease in quality of life. The biggest problem with customizable humans is that their genes are determined by their parents. A customized human created to fit their parents’ plans would have their future dictated to them regardless of their aptitudes and preferences. In the movie, there is a scene where a pianist with 12 fingers plays a piece that is only possible with 12 fingers. It is not revealed in the movie whether the pianist is a custom human or not, but a parent who wants their child to be a pianist might want to have a child with 12 fingers. However, twin studies have shown that environmental factors are more important than genetics in shaping a child’s self-concept, meaning that people with the same genes can have different career aspirations depending on the environment in which they are raised. A child with 12 fingers is forced by his parents to become a pianist, and a customized human with perfect genes suffers from a sense of entitlement to always be perfect. In the movie, Anton can’t accept losing a swimming bet to Vincent, who has inferior genes. In the case of Jerome, a promising swimmer who is not directly shown in the movie, he attempts suicide because he is devastated that he came in second in a swimming competition. With such superior genes, the life of a customized human is not expected to be a happy one.
Some people advocate for custom humans. They believe that the development of abilities based on the superior genes of customized humans will advance society as a whole. However, it is clear that the access to such superior genes will be limited to wealthy people who already have enough to live on. Most would agree that a society in which people who are already well off are better off is a better society than a society in which people who are currently poor are able to live well. The unchecked rise of personalized humans will widen the gap between the rich and the poor, and could bring misery to both those who benefit and those who don’t.
However, despite these concerns, there are so many benefits that advances in genetics can bring to humans that the technology to create personalized humans will one day be developed. When that time comes, it will be important to ensure that genetic manipulation is only legal for a few therapeutic purposes, and that it is done free of charge, so that the above concerns do not arise.