Gattaca Essay - Genetic Engineering
In the film GATTACA, people are able to genetically alter their children so that they can be successful and not life ‘invalid’ lives. Those who were not genetically advanced, were called invalids and were looked down upon in society. One of the main characters, Vincent, was conceived out of love and was not genetically altered. For his brother, however, his parents chose his traits so he was genetically advanced, and his parents favored his brother more. It would be nice to give my child an advantage in life by choosing successful traits, but there are some reasons why I would not want to genetically alter my child.
First of all, I would want my future son or daughter to have the best and easiest life possible. I would want them to be successful and not have to be subjugated because of their genes, but it seems unnatural to choose what traits they inherit. What if genetic engineering messes up and they inherit mental or physical disabilities instead?
Genetic Engineering has some benefits, though. It gives humans a head start. Parents can choose what their children look like, prevent them from inheriting genetic diseases, and parents can choose if they want their child to be athletic or artistic. Despite all of these advantages, we cannot control how children grow mentally. In the movie, Jerome had all of these great genetic traits and was a star athlete, but was depressed. There was so much pressure to be perfect because he was created perfect. He started drinking and smoking, and tried to kill himself. Genetically altering our children can cause them to crumble under the pressure of trying to act perfect because they were genetically perfect.
In conclusion, I do not think I would genetically engineer my child. It is not natural, and I do not believe that we should be able to mess with our genes. There is already enough prejudice in this world with different races, religions, and beliefs. Creating a whole new race with genetically altered humans would make it even worse.
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