Gattaca/YMMV

"In a few short years, scientists will have completed the Human Genome Project, the mapping of all the genes that make up a human being. We have now evolved to the point where we can direct our own evolution. Had we acquired this knowledge sooner, the following people may never have been born; Abraham Lincoln — Marfan Syndrome Emily Dickinson — Manic Depression Vincent van Gogh — Epilepsy Albert Einstein — Dyslexia John F Kennedy — Addison's Disease Rita Hayworth — Alzheimer's Disease
 * Anvilicious: A borderline case already. Definitely so had the director included the Coda included in the deleted scenes on the DVD.
 * Ho Yay: Vincent and Eugene. That scene after Eugene gets drunk, anyone?
 * Paranoia Fuel
 * Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The Coda hits you like a bagful of wet sand behind your left ear.
 * Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The Coda hits you like a bagful of wet sand behind your left ear.

Ray Charles — Primary Glaucoma

Stephen Hawking — Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Jackie Joyner-Kersee — Asthma

Of course, the other birth that may never have taken place is your own..."


 * Straw Man Has a Point: Designer Babies aren't necessarily bad. They have decreased chances of inheritable diseases.
 * But what about all the embryos that are discarded during in vitro fertilization? Millions of tiny human beings thrown in the trash because geneticists decide they're not good enough to live.
 * On a purely pragmatic approach, you are saving those babies from having half lives; and saving everybody else a ton of grief. Rising a child with birth defects is not easy, particularly with the more degenerative diseases, and on top of that you save tons of money on specialized care. The real debate is wich side is more humane, as is the case for euthanasia. The point of the movie however is that your genetic make up DOESNT determine whether you are worthy or not, it's your actions and decisions. The comparison is not between handicapped people vs the designer babies, but the discrimination "normal" people suffer against "perfect" people. Jerome is a self-made handicapped person who ends up treated as less than a faithbirth, yet he has a perfect genetic make up.
 * The problem comes when people start designing their babies to be successful, where you have an enormous gap between the rich and the poor: suddenly, in order to truly succeed in society, you have to have been designed, which is presumably going to be expensive. You might say that success is determined by your actions, but your actions are determined by your genome. Social stratification becomes incredibly solid, and you have a world where you are destined from birth to do a certain job. It's like Brave New World except rich people are always alphas.
 * We're supposed to be outraged by the fact that all the focus in the murder investigation is on Vincent, but it's perfectly reasonable for the police to focus their investigation on someone who was near the scene of the crime and cannot be accounted for with an alibi. Evidence left at the scene of the crime has DNA that doesn't match anyone officially on the payroll, so assuming that it was an intruder is a logical working theory until the evidence says otherwise.