QUESTIONNAIRE OF GATTACA

GATTACA

In the not too distant future, genetic engineering has advanced as to design our children to make them genetically perfect. In this new society a new type of social stratification is born based on the genetic qualities of the individual. The struggle of an individual born in a natural way to realize his dream of travelling into space, privilege only reserved for the genetically perfect, discusses the limits of human ability, which marks the boundaries of our genome and possibilities offered by the environment in which we live.

Questionnaire

1.   In the future world of Gattaca, how are the so-called "valid" created?

The valid are those people whose genes have been chosen by their parents before they are born. They do this process by an in vitro fecundation and chosing the individuals with better characteristics.

2.   Who are the non-“valid”?

Those people who aren’t created this way, they are conceived naturally.

3.   Why is the star shower every day and rubbed his body with stones?

So that none of his real cells could fall and somebody could find out his real identity.

4.   What is the difference between genotype and phenotype? Is there a perfect genotype? Explain your answer.

The genotype is the characteristics that your genes have and the phenotype is how these genes are shown in your body. The perfect genotype doesn’t exist because there are always mutations.

5.   These are the two statements we can see at the beginning of the film with the credits. Why do you think the director has chosen them? Discuss.

"Look at God's work. Who can fix up what he twisted? "Ecclesiastes

"Not only think to manipulate Mother Nature, I think Mother wants to do" Willard Gayla

To introduce the topic the film is going to talk about. The director expects to set an “environment” and to start the debate. Both sentences agree with the changes humans have made to the way they are.

6.   In the credits at the beginning of the film, microscopic objects are extended, what are they? Why do we include them at the beginning of the movie?

They are part of Vincent’s body, like hair that he cuts or part of his beard, the eyelashes. It is what he has to do to make sure that no one can recognize him because of his real genes.  It is included at the begginig of the movie to show the obsession Vincent has with that.

7.   Discuss the following statements from the film:

"I do not understand why my mother put faith in God's hands instead of a

geneticist"

"I just I'll give my body but I did give you your dream"

"I never book anything in return" (swimming race)

·In the world where Vincent lives, it makes no sense to trust God, when the geneticist have everything to make their lives easier.

·That by giving him his body, he will be able to achieve his dream.

·He never kept any energy for the way back. It means that the only thing he cared about was winning, it didn’t matter if he could go back again

8.   The movie uses the word “geonisme” to name genetic discrimination. Have you ever heard the word eugenics? Do you know what it means?

Investigate whether any State has applied to the contemporary population.

Eugenics is a scientific movement that wants to modify the human’s genes to improve the life’s quality.

In China there is a law which doesn’t let people with mental or genetic illnesses get married.   In Israel, parents can see if their unborn baby has any illness. In case they have one, their parents can chose not to have it, because they want to eliminate the genes that cause these illnesses from the population. It is also used in some states of the USA, where you couples have to go through a blood test to see if they have any illness like syphilis.

9.   What would our attitude be if we could choose not only the sex of our children, but also the colour of their skin, their intellectual capacities and widespread, its future? What role would “ethics” play when taking such decisions? What role would the nature have? Will everyone have access to these biotechnologies?

I think nobody should be able to use a modification in their child’s genes only to change it’s hair colour or the colour of the eyes. If you used genetic modification to increase the child’s intellectual capacities, you would be creating a “race” wich would be superior to other chills, and a situation like the one on the film would appear, as only the rich families would be able to give their children this qualities and all the other children would have lower capacities. I think ethic will be the only thing that can stop this from happening, as it is the only reason why the parents won’t give their child the best future they can buy.

If this happened, nature wouldn’t have any role, as everything in humans would be chosen by humans. Not everybody would have access to these new possibilities, and genoism would appear.

10. Comment on the following statement from a French film magazine about the film. "The film has no chance role in procreation, then there is no procreation itself, because the whole development of the fetus is scheduled scientifically, under the eye of geneticists and controlled by computers that analyze, organize and scheduled the final product: the baby "

It talks about the films main topic, the creation of perfect babies. Nothing will be left to chance, everything in the baby will be chosen before it is born.