Blog 10: Gattaca Response

“The other” is certainly seen in everyday life even when you just think about it; this is, when a person thinks: “Wow, how she can do something like that?” or “I wouldn’t say that if that was me…” In this case, that person is putting his/herself into a position, as if that person were judging that “other” person’s actions and thoughts resulting in being “the other” for the person that was critiquing that individual. “The other” is not particularly seen in the present, but also in history as stated by George J. Annas in his essay “The Man in the Moon.” He articulates that “The new ideal human, the genetically engineered ‘superior’ human, will almost certainly come to represent ‘the other’. If history is a guide, either the normal humans will view the ‘better’ humans as the other and seek to control or destroy them, or vice-versa” (236).

I believe this statement to contain both probable as well as uncertain ideals, as he is stating that the genetically engineered which is the scientific alteration of the structure of genetic material in a living organism using recombinant DNA, humans are bound to be the “superior” type of human beings in a society as a whole. Therefore, these “superior” humans will be viewed as “the other” according to the normal humans; but probably to the “better” humans the normal ones will be viewed as “the other” creating a controversy. For example, in history situations such as the struggle between the Nazis and the Jews the concept of “the other” is evidently seen. For the Nazis, Jews were those of inferior race and they dominated and mistreated them based on their philosophy which was that the Germans believed they were the ‘superior race’ and their destiny was to take control of the inferior ones. In this case, the Nazis viewed the Jews as “the other” due to their philosophy resulting on the exploitation of the Jews unjustly. A revisit to the movie Gattaca is certainly clever as it matches perfectly with the concept of “the other.” In the movie, Vincent was considered to belong to the society’s lower levels due to the fact that he was naturally conceived; on the other hand, his brother Anton was artificially conceived therefore containing the genetic characteristics that are scientifically engineered to maximize his biologically in-built positive abilities. Hence, Vincent was viewed as “the other” because of the society’s functional outlook generally disdaining him when his dream was to travel to space.

Back to Annas’s theory, supposing that it might contain uncertain ideals, it’s crucial to point out that this statement is generally viewed from a scientific perspective and of course, scientists perhaps view facts from a more logical and technical outlook. They analyze and elaborate different studies in order to prove their point articulated and support their thesis in general aspects. In other words, there’s a discrepancy on a viewpoint of a person on this factor and an opinion of a scientist; showing what I believe which is that there are a lot of benefits on the genetically engineering, but at the same time there are issues linked to it. A positive aspect of genetically engineering would definitely be the elimination or at least the diminish of diseases. It would be of the nation’s welfare to have a decrease of viruses as of course, people’s health improves and there’s less risk of severe diseases that can cause death. Conversely, one of the negative aspects might be the fact that applying genetically engineered human beings will turn out to be too machine-like or elaborate. This means that such drawbacks might not be a problem to these highly structured beings and there won’t be such nature or natural joy ability. Genetically engineered species might be possible in the near future due to the constant increase in technology and machinery nowadays. The theory of the “superior other” cannot only be seen in human history, but also in present day society. For instance, a person that possesses large quantity of money might certainly be seen as the superior other due to the fact that the public consider a person with a lot of wealth to be powerful, sophisticated and interesting becoming a prevailing human being; why is money such an ambitious priority for the people?

Genetically engineered human beings can turn into a real controversy in the present, but can definitely be beneficial in certain ways in the long run. But mostly, to keep it natural is what’s best because we were created and conceived that way biologically. Due to constant technological advances it is of no doubt that genetically elaborated human beings might perhaps be a paramount option in the future. Hopefully natural human aspects are not executed and genetically engineering is utilized for other healthier purposes rather than elaborating a machine-like human.