The New Eugenics in Cinema: Genetic Determinism and Gene Therapy in GATTACA

Abstract

A technological revolution is occurring in the biosciences that will transform humanity more profoundly in the coming decades than has occurred in the previous thousand years. As biotechnology continues its rapid expansion, American society is confronted with new and unique bioethical dilemmas. Throughout the history of cinema, fiction films have addressed ethical issues associated with new technologies. 1 In Screening Space, Vivian Sobchack discusses the relationship between and society as represented in sf cinema. She claims that sf cinema portrays science as force, as an institutional aspect of contemporary civilization (50; italics in original). As indicated in the above quotation from longtime biotechnology critic Jeremy Rifkin, genetic engineering represents society's worst fears about as social force. It is evident from the recent boom in films that include genetic engineering as a plot element, ranging from the wildly successful Jurassic Park (1993) to the box-office flop Alien: Resurrection (1997), that sf cinema remains a forum for discourse about biotechnology's impact on society and nature. Commentators on fiction sometimes have a tendency to view genetic engineering (and, indeed, scientific practices generally) as monolithic, with little or no delineation between diverse scientific procedures. Genetic engineering is essentially just a catchall phrase used to describe any technique that allows biologists to manipulate an organism's hereditary material. Genetic engineering encompasses three distinct categories of gene manipulation: 1) recombinant DNA technology (rDNA technology), which involves combining DNA from two different species; 2) the cloning of multicellular organisms, in which a new individual is generated from a single cell, circumventing sexual reproduction by creating offspring that are genetically identical to adults; and 3) human-gene therapy, which is the direct manipulation of human genes. Although these are distinct technological procedures, their use can be combined: human genes can be inserted into the genome of another organism (rDNA technology), which can then be cloned. Though many of the ethical problems associated with one type of genetic engineering can be ascribed to the other types, all three forms present unique bioethical dilemmas as well. Even after the advent of genetic engineering in the early 1970s, and the

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