Gattaca reviewed

"Gattaca"
Starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law
Sony Pictures
1997

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In the near future, national oppression will be replaced by genetic oppression--that's the premise of sci-fi film "Gattaca," whose name is a pun on the four letters in the DNA "alphabet," a state in classical Greece and (perhaps unintentionally) the infamous prison in upstate New York. Vincent Freeman is a "genetically inferior in-valid," conceived and born without intervention, whereas his brother and other "valids" are conceived in vitro and chosen because they lack the genes for certain diseases and supposed defects such as baldness. Although it is illegal to discriminate against in-valids (much the same way it is technically illegal to discriminate on the basis of "race" in the United $tates), in-valids find themselves trapped in the proletariat and barred from prestigious jobs such as space exploration. Vincent cuts a deal with Jerome, a valid crippled in a car accident, and uses Jerome's DNA to pass as a valid. Vincent excels at his job and is eventually chosen over many valids to fly to Saturn. "Gattaca" is a worthy critique of "Bell Curve"-style genetic determinism currently used to justify racism. However, the film flirts with the opposite idealist extreme: genes determine nothing. The film's promotional tag-line is "there is no gene for the human spirit" and a crucifix is present at Vincent's conception and birth--although whether to signify Vincent is born "the way God intended" or to show his parents' religious values kept them from in vitro fertilization is unclear. Still, there is enough material in the film to suggest that genes do matter. At his birth, geneticists predict that Vincent has a greater than 90% chance of dying of heart disease in his 30s. Sure enough, his heartbeat is noticeably irregular and in a stressful situation he experiences severe arrhythmia. He also inherits poor eyesight and has to wear contact lenses to pass as a "valid." MIM sees nothing wrong in principle with in vitro fertilization and embryo selection. Already this technology could prevent some very painful and deadly diseases due to rare mutations in single genes. Scientists currently know very little about genes involved in common diseases like diabetes or cancer, which likely depend on many genes and their interaction with environmental factors like diet, exposure to sunlight, air quality, etc. etc. But one day they might be able to make predictions similar to those in Gattaca, although the confidence intervals (a measure of the uncertainty in the estimates) for any one individual are likely to be wide. The question is, which is more effective at stopping disease: genetic screening at birth or prevention, surveillance and treatment after birth? For most diseases and health matters, the answer is clearly the latter. "Gattaca" gives a good example of this: Jerome's excellent genes couldn't keep him from getting hit by a car. Accidents (major killers in the United $tates) have little to do with genes and a lot to do with overcrowded and poorly maintained roads, etc. Furthermore, Jerome need not have become ostracized and unemployable because he lost the use of his legs. "Gattaca" is saying there is something wrong with a society that requires all of its members be in perfect health all the time. Marxists hold that "freedom does not consist in the dream of independence from natural laws, but in the knowledge of these laws, and the possibility this gives of systematically making them work towards definite ends,"(1) which is why we disagree with the slogan "there is no gene for the human spirit." As we wrote in our review of "The Bell Curve," "even if there were 'genetic' inferiority, that would not mean society is helpless to change it."(2) Humyns should not only strive to understand their genes to understand how certain diseases work and fashion better treatments, they should also strive to understand how humyns still suffer poverty and war when the means to eradicate these evils are at hand. Notes: 1. Engels in the Anti-Duhring, quoted in Selsam and Martel, "Reader in Marxist Philosophy," New York: International Publishers, 1963, p. 266. 2. MIM Theory 9, p 56.