Teen Biology Magazine May/June 2013 | Page 12

The movie Gattaca is a science fiction movie depicting the near future where your genetic makeup is chosen by your parents and social class is primarily dependant on your DNA.

The movie follows Vincent Anton Freeman (played by Ethan Hawke) as he assumes the identity of Jerome Eugene Morrow (played by Jude Law), a swimming star with a genetic profile "second to none", who was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident. Using Jerome’s blood, hair, tissue, and urine samples with his "valid" DNA, Vincent is able to pass screening as Jerome at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.

When the mission director is found bludgeoned to death in his office a week before the one-year mission to Saturn’s moon Titan, DNA belonging to the real Vincent is found and he is made the prime suspect. Trying to protect his real identity, Vincent has to avoid getting caught impersonating a “valid” before he embarks on the Titan mission.

Throughout the movie, they show a society is made up of people whose parents used genetic selection to create their genetic profile. In my opinion, the movie well demonstrates a possibility of what society would be like when DNA can be used to identify a person. It also depicted what sorts of buildings and vehicles would possible exist in that era very well.

At the end of the movie, I was left with one question. In a society where your social class primarily depends on your DNA, would gene therapy, if it exists, change your social class? Or would it stay the same?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Gataca_Movie_Poster_B.jpg

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