Tasmin Perry
ENGL 101-0768
Dr. Vasileiou
Essay #1
10/3/12
The Costs of Living
We all dream of a
life based on a Utopian society. We hope that our lives will exceed limits and
our children will be perfect. But what length would a person go to ensure this
perfect life? The people in the movie Gattaca are living in a dream world. As parents
they are able to choose their child’s destiny before they are even born.
Scientists are trying to play the roles of God by trying to eliminate all
natural health problems. It comes to my attention that in this world generally
you’ll know how your life will turn out just by the make-up of your DNA. It is
not fair that if someone wasn’t genetically engineered to be perfect their
success rate would be low and they would lose hope to pursue their dreams. Genetically
engineering ones child is unnatural and not flaw proof, I feel the world
presented in Gattaca is a portrayed as a Dystopia.
Though it may seem possible for a person
to see the Gattaca society as a Utopia, due to environmental polices like
electronic transportation, as a result there is far less pollution which slows
down the process of global warming. Also due to advancement in technology there
are fewer illnesses so people don’t have to be concerned of dying from diseases
because they are prevented. Also the people of this society are far more
advanced and are able to take daily trips to outer space. However to support my
position of Gattaca being portrayed as a dystopian society I would like to
bring up three key points to help my argument. To start with any parent granted
the opportunity ensure their child a good life would accept it at all costs.
Especially if you could choose their fate before they were born. But what if
you are in the position where you cannot afford to pay for the process of
having your child genetically engineered, or if the child was not planned. The
child would grow to be weak and not have as many aspirations as a child that
was made to succeed. They would constantly struggle with the stigma of not
being good enough.
If majority of the people in the society
are perfect, no one would find the need to work hard. There wouldn’t be any struggle
or hard bridges to cross if everything was basically handed to you. From
firsthand experience and throughout history I have noticed that a person who
has endured a great deal of struggle puts forth a large amount of effort to get
out of the current situation they are in. It also builds character to not be
able to take things for granted. Lastly, as seen in the movie
Gattaca, Jerome Marrow who was born genetically engineered himself, was
destined to prosper. He was once a swimming star who always came in first
place. When suddenly during one of his meets he came in second place. This
brought him to trying to commit suicide, which he failed to do and became
disabled. This demonstrates how much pressure one could feel living in this
society of such high competition to always be better. In the movie it is portrayed
that with the help of science, society would lead a flawless and healthy life.
We saw that though Irene was genetically engineered she still she was able to
have a heart disease. This shows that science is not always perfect and
naturally things can go wrong.
In the essay, The Man on the Moon, written by George J. Annas. He depicts the ways humans have tried
to perfect the human race. Annas writes: “We
have a tendency simply to let science take us where it will. But science has no
will and human judgment is almost always necessary for any successful
exploration of the unknown.” Scientists can try their best to perfect
humans but going back to the fact that not all things done in the name of
science goes as planned, things just go wrong. In conclusion it is important to
think of the future as something we can improve but not as block of molding
clay to make what society sees as the “perfect human beings”.
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