What do you think? Fair deal? Certainly not! However, it is indeed what the 1997 movie Gattaca by Andrew Niccol portrays.
It tells the story of Vincent Freeman (played by Ethan Hawke), a young man who is, without any technological interference, born into a society where human perfection and thus genetic manipulation are conceived as top priorities on the agenda.
As chance would have it, his life expectancy doesn’t amount to more than 30 years caused by a high risk of heart disorder. Being constantly exposed to discrimination and prejudices of all kind, Vincent decides to turn his current status of invalidity into one where he is perceived as valid, which means nothing else than having appropriate genetic advantage. Only then is he given the possibility to pursue his epitome of happiness: becoming an astronaut at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.
Therefore, he sees himself forced to circumvent law by adopting the perfectly valid identity of Jerome Eugene Morrow (played by Jude Law), a former swimming star. In order to be admitted to Gattaca, Vincent must pass meticulously run genetic tests for which he uses Jerome’s DNA in blood, hair, tissue and urine samples.
Once granted access to the aerospace corporate, his career begins to boost up into the atmosphere. But it does not take long until some severe problems are approaching and Vincent’s life-long dream is at stake.
Since I don’t want to blow the end of this really great film, and as pictures are worth a thousand words, I leave you for two and a half minutes with this:
By the way, its opening titles are…
“Consider God’s handiwork; who can straighten what He hath made crooked?”
Ecclesiastes 7:13
“I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature, I think Mother wants us to.”
Willard Gaylin
Now imagine you were living in such a society, embedded by values that are overall driven by genetic engineering and biological perfectionism.
Would you then be willing to give up your own unique identity to find felicity?
Dystopia 