GATTACA: Genetic Discrimination

Teo Martinez

Period 5

In the film Gattaca, the idea is presented that genetic engineering has been perfected by scientists, and parents have the ability to choose their children’s genes.  However, not all parents choose this option, and the people not genetically engineered are considered inferior to those who are.  This prejudice causes an extreme discrimination that, in the film, has replaced racism.

According to Vincent, the main character, it is technically against the law for an employer to make a decision based on an applicant’s genes, but this law is ignored and non-engineered people (AKA “invalids”) are not hired into any high paying or important jobs.  This is most likely due to the imperfections of the invalids, since valids (the engineered counterparts) are genetically sculpted to be perfect.  The general assumption, therefore, is that the invalids will be more incompetent than the valids at any assignments or jobs given.  The invalids are then only able to acquire the lowest jobs, of small pay and much physical labor.  The valids, assumed to be superior, are allowed into offices like Gattaca, where they take on important roles like space exploration that invalids are considered to not be able to achieve.

The discrimination against the invalids spreads out of job employment and into the public’s minds.  Because of the advancements in genetics, doctors are able to genetically assess a newborn child and gauge any genetic imperfections, like inherited diseases, heart problems, and even the projected age of death.  This would cause prejudices in average people’s minds, thinking that invalids would be physically weaker and less important.  Because the invalids are conceived naturally and are not engineered to be perfect, many of the genes they inherit from their parents would have negative effects on them, like disabilities or diseases.  The valids would be engineered to have peak physical conditions, able to achieve great feats, and because the invalids are not engineered with these traits it is assumed that they cannot achieve any feats above average human standards.

Due to the previously mentioned prejudices of invalids’ abilities, invalids are not even allowed into building such as Gattaca, unless they are of the janitorial staff.  When the director was murdered and the inspectors discovered Vincent’s eyelash, they are not surprised to find that the eyelash is of an invalid.  The public picture of invalids is so low that it is expected that an invalid would murder a valid, in what the public would assume is sheer jealousy or envy.  The invalids are so oppressed that people believe that invalids would want to find ways into places allowed only for valids, whether it is only to explore or to seek harm on a valid in jealousy.

In Gattaca, racism is replaced by genetic discrimination, where people not genetically engineered are considered inferior, to the point that they feel jealousy boiling over to a point of violence.  Invalids are only hired for simplistic laboring jobs, are considered physically weaker than the engineered, and are assumed to be so bitter and envious of the engineered that they feel like exacting vengeance for no true crime.