The human genome project is a great scientific advance but is society ready for it? Gattaca is a futuristic film that portrays the social ramifications of the problems of the project. We have to be very cautious and restrictive on how we use these new advances or we will turn into Gattaca.
The genes in the human body have been completely mapped out in Gattaca and they can produce the perfect babies. They have the technology available to remove diseases or enhance looks and abilities. Arthur Caplan in his article "The Brave New World of Babymaking," describes Gattaca's baby assembly line, "[ ] parents can go further, choose hair color, height, and even intelligence, they [are] consciously engineering human beings" (89). The manipulation of genes that is in Gattaca is the same consumer fashion that people undergo now in liposuction or wearing tinted contact lenses. You were not normal if you are a faith birth or God child; you were the minority. Vincent, a faith birth, faced great challenges in life compared to his brother Antawn who was genetically enhanced. You have to be a perfect baby to be recognized in Gattaca.
Nobody knows the real truth of what a perfect baby is; they just have their own opinions. Catherine Baker states that "[t]hey were for the most part well to do, educated, white, Protestant, and descended from northern Europeans"(2). This description holds true because generally they are the upper class who can afford these screenings. Brad Evenson asserts that "[w]ere defining the fittest in our society as the wealthiest" (2). The products that cure disease and redefine genetically the human person are not just a matter of science anymore but have been brought to the marketplace. This was a start of a super race, you were not normal unless you bought genes to look like everyone else. We have seen this type of discrimination and move to a super race in past history with Nazi Germany.
