Gattacca, should we make a superior human race?

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In many countries across the world, researchers are focusing on the creation of a superior human race, where a human being is immune to illness and has extreme intelligence. The term 'designer baby' defines a human who has undergone genetic trait selection and is the idea behind the creation of a superior human race. The film ‘Gattaca’ directed by Andre Niccol, exhibits the idea of creating such race by genetically modifying human embryos with enhancement to the genes. While the process itself is highly controversial, it has brought up numerous ethical issues, as well as causing discrimination within society, and leads to children being used as commodity. Thus, the idea of making a superior human race should not be tolerated.

Firstly, the ethical issues surrounding the idea of making a superior human race through the process of creating a ‘designer baby’ causes many debates. Scientists genetically modify the human embryos by altering the genetic codes (Bonsor, 2012). As a result of scientific manipulation, the embryos are sacrificed in order to obtain successful production. This goes against Article 3 in the United Nations’ ‘Declaration of Human Rights’, stating that embryos have the ‘right to life’ (Lynn, 2005). It is ethically immoral for scientists to ‘play God’. This similar idea appears in Niccol’s film, ‘Gattaca’, where the doctor creates Anton as a perfect human, with ‘dark hair, hazel eyes and fair skin’ by selecting his genes. Furthermore, with the possibility of selecting traits of the child, such as gender, most parents prefer male children, as they carry on the family name. This leads to the proposition where within societies, there is highly skewed ratio of males to females. Overall the creation of a superior human race should not be initiated pursuant to the ethical implications.

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Secondly, the creation of ‘designer babies’ leads to discrimination within the society as the superior human race results in the issue of contempt where they look down upon average humans as being inferior (Novella, 2009). These humans have extreme genetic enhancement of intelligence to sustain the world and the desire to create a pure race of superiority, such as in the holocaust. These humans receive jobs of higher standards, whereas natural born humans are shunned and receive jobs of lower standards. In the film, ‘Gattaca’, those who are born naturally, such as Vincent are referred to as ‘God’s children’. ...

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