GATTACA Essay

Jonathan Dombro

1/16/15

Period 5

Genetic Discrimination in the GATTACA World

In our modern society, workplace discrimination is unfortunately very common. For the most part, it is on a racial, ethnic, or sexual basis. However, it is not entirely uncommon for someone to be denied a job if they have difficult medical condition, even if it does not affect their performance at their job. While businesses in our time do not usually have access to their potential employees’ health or genetic records, the availability of said records would almost inevitably lead to people with difficult health history being denied jobs. A company may decide that it would not be worth it to hire a person purely because of health or genetic reason, which is exactly what happens in the GATTACA world.

Clearly discrimination is not a foreign subject to the modern American workplace. However, it is not technically allowed; it merely exists because there is rarely a way to prove you were unfairly judged for a job. This is opposed to in GATTACA, where nearly every option you have in life is determined by your genetic profile. They are very open about it and that is a very different situation than what we have today, although our situation could evolve into a similar one to GATTACA if it is not carefully monitored. This aspect of the society of GATTACA emphasizes its dystopian nature and gives it a haunting similarity to pre-War World War 2 Nazi Germany.

In the 1930s in Germany elitism was at an all time world high. Those who were not part of the Aryan master race, especially the Jews, were deemed unfit for most jobs. They were not allowed to hold social roles or receive a full education and for unfairly judged wherever they went. In the latter half of the decade, things escalated, Jews were no longer simply ostracized from society; they were public beaten and attacked and many were stripped of their possessions and forced to live in ghettos. The GATTACA world is pretty far away from this point, but it is no secret that in-valids, people without enhanced genes, are treated as inferior members of society. While it doesn’t seem necessary or logical to want the in-valids killed, for a dystopic society like the one depicted in GATTACA, it certainly is not completely unbelievable.

If the nameless leaders of the futuristic society decided that they wanted to cleanse society of the members with less potential, the first people they would turn to would be the in-valids. Most likely they would turn them into slaves and not waste any of society’s resources on their development. After all, someone needs to clean those windows. However, if it becomes apparent that not as many people are needed in society, it would be likely for in-valids to start being exterminated, even if only illegally.

The best course of action for the GATTACA society is to stop limiting so called “in-valids” to their suspected potential. If Vincent taught us anything, it’s that we can make ourselves great, regardless of what society tells us. If those without modified genes are allowed to integrate in society once again, there is much less chance of job discrimination turning into a genetic holocaust. That is not what the GATTACA world needs, and the people they are casting aside without a second thought could wind up being useful contributing members of society. If the people in charge really wanted to turn things around, they would open up jobs at GATTACA based on intelligence and contribution, not just a genetic resume.