Surpassing our genes: The subversive post-human message of 'Gattaca'

Authors

  • Emily Klein University of Washington, Seattle (USA).
  • Leah Ceccarelli University of Washington, Seattle (USA).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.12.20673

Keywords:

bioethics, genetics, rhetoric, film criticism, science fiction

Abstract

The movie Gattaca is often referenced in public debates about the societal dangers of human gene editing. In the public imaginary, its message is clear: the dystopian future it portrays stands as a warning against the societal acceptance of genetic perfectionism and genetic discrimination. This article argues that such a reading misses a deeper message of this cinematic text. Rather than offer a bioethics lesson against the use of genetics to make better human babies, in our opinion, the film actually argues that such genetic tampering is unlikely to succeed, but that the genetic engineering of a superior post-human individual is both possible and desirable.

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Author Biographies

Emily Klein, University of Washington, Seattle (USA).

Student in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington, Seattle (USA). She developed an early version of this paper in a course she took in her freshman year in the Interdisciplinary Honors Program, which she presented at the University of Washington Undergraduate Research Symposium. Klein is currently studying to become a researcher in genetics and proteomics.

Leah Ceccarelli, University of Washington, Seattle (USA).

Professor in the Department of Communication of the University of Washington, Seattle (USA) and member of Metode SSJ ’s scientific board. She is the author of two award-winning academic books, Shaping science with rhetoric (University of Chicago Press, 2001) and On the frontier of science (Michigan State University Press, 2013), as well as dozens of articles on the rhetoric of science.

References

Agar, N. (2005). Liberal eugenics: In defense of human enhancement. Blackwell.

Elshtain, J. B. (2004). The body and the question for control. In H. W. Baillie & T. K. Casey (Eds.), Is human nature obsolete?: Genetics, bioengineering, and the future of the human condition (pp. 155–175). MIT Press.

Evans, J. (2018, 27 November). The road to enhancement, via human gene editing, is paved with good intentions. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-enhancement-via-human-gene-editing-is-paved-with-good-intentions-107677

Green, R. M. (2007). Babies by design: The ethics of genetic choice. Yale University Press.

Isaacson, W. (2021). The code breaker: Jennifer Douda, gene editing, and the future of the human race. Simon & Schuster.

Lynch, J. (2019). Bioethics and Brave New World: Science fiction and public articulation of bioethics. Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, 2(1), 33–59. https://doi.org/10.5744/rhm.2019.1002

Maslin, J. A. (1997, October 24). Film Review. The next bigotry: Privilege by genetic perfection. The New York Times, E18.

Niccol, A. (Director). (1997). Gattaca [Motion picture]. Columbia Pictures.

Von Burg, R. (2010). Cinematic genetics: GATTACA, Essentially Yours, and the rhetoric of genetic determinism. Southern Communication Journal, 75(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/10417940902896839

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Published

2022-02-02

How to Cite

Klein, E., & Ceccarelli, L. (2022). Surpassing our genes: The subversive post-human message of ’Gattaca’. Metode Science Studies Journal, (12), 183–188. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.12.20673
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Issue

The future of science (2022)

Section

Transhumanism. Beyond the body

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