Ethical Issues In Gattaca

Gattaca is set in the “not-too-distant future” (Gattaca) where our genes dictate everything about us. A single piece of hair, skin or a drop of blood control what you can or cannot do with your life and what you’re capable of achieving. In this dystopian world, society’s measure of success is governed by science and individuals are separated by the standards of perfection. The only way for Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) to achieve his dream of going into space is by hiding his own identity and transforming from an “In-Valid” to a “Valid” (Gattaca). The film’s opening quotes distinctly demonstrate the ethical issues the film will constantly question throughout. The first quote “Consider God’s handiwork: who can straighten what He hath made crooked?” from Ecclesiastes 7:13 slowly fades

Near the end of the film when Vincent worries that he will be caught impersonating as a “Valid”, and Eugene tells him “When they look at you, they don’t see you. They only see me” (Gattaca). In the article, The Postracial Imagination: Gattaca’s Imperfection Science, Olivia Banner suggests that Vincent and Eugene’s deception “erodes the link that assumes the body connotes biologically based truths of identity, specifically of masculinity” (Banner). Both Vincent and Eugene’s physical body and genetic makeup go into making the identity of Jerome. In Jackie Stacey’s analysis, she also agrees with Banner’s idea stating that “In placing Vincent and Eugene’s criminal deception at the heart of the discrepancy between visual evidence and genetic evidence…the film undoes the singularity of masculine sovereignty…as much as it does conventional forms of vision” (Stacey 117). One is genetically perfect and is disabled while the other is physically unhealthy. Two imperfect individuals can come together to form a “perfect” individual as defined by