DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

"Gattaca" and the Problem of Genetic Enhancement

  • Received : 2019.05.01
  • Accepted : 2019.05.14
  • Published : 2019.06.30

Abstract

Andrew Niccols's movie Gattaca (1997) inspired the formulation of the "Gattaca Argument" concerning the negative outcome of biotechnology, which has since been critiqued especially in the context of transhumanism and posthumanism. According this argument the development of genetic enhancement will produce a genetic discrimination and lead us to serious form of inequality. However, in particular transhumanists deny that here are reasons to worry and advocating instead the transformation of human condition in terms of genetic enhancement. Moreover, they question that genetic enhancement will necessarily lead to social inequality. In what follows, we will reexamine the Gattaca Argument and its critiques based on the movie in order to reassess the role the movie plays in the subsequent scholarly discussion. We will argue that existing critiques fall short of capturing the problem posed in the movie - the problem of the inhumane. Based on a hermeneutic approach to the movie we will both reconstruct the arguments and evaluate the transhuman counterarguments in terms of modern history of philosophical ideas.

Keywords

References

  1. Ralf Beuthan, "Gattaca - revised sub specie inhumanitatis," Aufklarung und Kritik, Vol. 54, pp. 249-260, Aug. 2015.
  2. A. Lienkamp and C. Soling, Die Evolution verbessern?: Utopien der Gentechnik, Bonifatius, pp. 99-118, 2003.
  3. Lee M. Silver, "Genetics goes to Hollywood," Nature Genetics, Vol. 17, pp. 260-261, Nov. 1997. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1197-260
  4. Ed. R. Ranisch and S. L. Sorgner, Post- and Transhumanism: An Introduction, Peter Lang GmbH, pp. 299-310, 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-05076-9
  5. James Hughes, Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies must respond to the redesigned Human of the Future, Basic Books, pp. 144-148, 2004.
  6. Stefan Herbrechter, Posthumanismus: Eine kritische Einfuhrung, WBG, pp. 117, 2009.
  7. J. G. Fichte, „Einige Vorlesungen uber die Bestimmung des Gelehrten", Zur Politik und Moral, Vol. 6, pp.321, 1971 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110865639.289
  8. Jean-Francois Lyotard, Das Inhumane, Passagen Verlag, pp. 11-21, 1989.
  9. Max More and Natasha Vita-More, The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future, Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 258-266, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118555927.ch26