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 before they are born. They create this kind of people by an in vitro fecundation and chosing their genes in order to choose their chareacteristics.

2.   Who are the non-“valid”?

Those people that their parents don’t choice their genes, they are born in the natural way.

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

With these process he wants to eliminate every real cell of his body to protect his true identity and to continue living like Gerome.

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

The genotype is the number of all your genes and their types 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

With these credits the director wants to make us understand the topic of the film and to start the discussion that the film would be about. And the booth sentences talk about the chances the humans made in theirselves and in the nature and also in the possible work of Good.

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 for example hair, eyelashes, nails... Vincent have to clean his body of his own cells to protect his secret identity. They are include in the beginning of the movie to show the importance of the cells to identify a person and the big obsession that Vicent 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)

·Vincent doesn’t understand why his mother trust Good because In the world where Vincent lives, it makes no sense to trust God because the geneticist have discover the methods to have a perfect life.

·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 he didn’t matter in the consequences or in the returning to the beach.

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 their future lifes.

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.

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?

We think that if we have the chance to create our children we would choice only some specific features to make sure that the kid would have a happy life. But we wouldn’t modificate the specific aspects like the colour of the skin or the sex of the child. We also think that everybody could have acces to these biotechnologies if not we woulgd be giving a preferent situation to a determinate group of people. Ethics may stop the people to make big differences in the creations of their children and they would stop it. The nature wouldn’t take part in these creations, because is an artificial human being so anything would left for the nature.

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 "

This magazine is talking about an iea of the film, the creation of a perfect human being. It will be every characteristic chosen and every detail would be perfectionated. In thic way it would be poccible to know the appearance of the baby before his born.