Shivam Maisuri

November 12th 2013

GATTACA REFLECTION
By watching the movie GATTACA, it opened my eyes to discover what genetics is all about. Not only was it a moment of realization for me, but I got to grasp interesting topics that relate to genetics and that also played a major role in the movie. This first topic I got to look at was Eugenics. Eugenics is the theory and practice of improving the genetic quality of the human population. In the movie Vincent has a great love astronomy and wants to go into space, due to the heart deficiencies he is born with, no astrology school would accept him into their program. This led him to meet Jarome Morrow who had an ideal genetic makeup. They used the theory of Eugenics and put it to practice in the movie. In the end, Vincent did get to go into space, but only due to the sacrifices Jarome made for him. In the movie the astrology school was very strict about who came in and out of their school due to a murder case. The school implemented the learnings of Biometrics to their school security system and checkups. Biometrics refers to the identification of humans by their characteristics and traits. This Biometric system gave Vincent a lot of problems. Throughout the movie he is trying to keep his true identity a secret from everyone. In the end he successfully fools the Biometric system and achieves his goals. In conclusion, I think that watching GATTACA was beneficial for me because it kept me interested, and it keeps me curious about the wonders of the genetic world.