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Gattaca as a lens on contemporary genetics: marking 25 years into the film’s “not-too-distant” future

The 1997 film Gattaca has emerged as a canonical pop culture reference used to discuss modern controversies in genetics and bioethics. It appeared in theaters a few years prior to the announcement of the “completion” of the human genome (2000), as the science of human genetics was developing a renew...

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Autores principales: Ogbunugafor, C Brandon, Edge, Michael D
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9713434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36218390
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyac142
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author Ogbunugafor, C Brandon
Edge, Michael D
author_facet Ogbunugafor, C Brandon
Edge, Michael D
author_sort Ogbunugafor, C Brandon
collection PubMed
description The 1997 film Gattaca has emerged as a canonical pop culture reference used to discuss modern controversies in genetics and bioethics. It appeared in theaters a few years prior to the announcement of the “completion” of the human genome (2000), as the science of human genetics was developing a renewed sense of its social implications. The story is set in a near-future world in which parents can, with technological assistance, influence the genetic composition of their offspring on the basis of predicted life outcomes. The current moment—25 years after the film’s release—offers an opportunity to reflect on where society currently stands with respect to the ideas explored in Gattaca. Here, we review and discuss several active areas of genetic research—genetic prediction, embryo selection, forensic genetics, and others—that interface directly with scenes and concepts in the film. On its silver anniversary, we argue that Gattaca remains an important reflection of society’s expectations and fears with respect to the ways that genetic science has manifested in the real world. In accompanying supplemental material, we offer some thought questions to guide group discussions inside and outside of the classroom.
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spelling pubmed-97134342022-12-02 Gattaca as a lens on contemporary genetics: marking 25 years into the film’s “not-too-distant” future Ogbunugafor, C Brandon Edge, Michael D Genetics Perspectives The 1997 film Gattaca has emerged as a canonical pop culture reference used to discuss modern controversies in genetics and bioethics. It appeared in theaters a few years prior to the announcement of the “completion” of the human genome (2000), as the science of human genetics was developing a renewed sense of its social implications. The story is set in a near-future world in which parents can, with technological assistance, influence the genetic composition of their offspring on the basis of predicted life outcomes. The current moment—25 years after the film’s release—offers an opportunity to reflect on where society currently stands with respect to the ideas explored in Gattaca. Here, we review and discuss several active areas of genetic research—genetic prediction, embryo selection, forensic genetics, and others—that interface directly with scenes and concepts in the film. On its silver anniversary, we argue that Gattaca remains an important reflection of society’s expectations and fears with respect to the ways that genetic science has manifested in the real world. In accompanying supplemental material, we offer some thought questions to guide group discussions inside and outside of the classroom. Oxford University Press 2022-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9713434/ /pubmed/36218390 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyac142 Text en © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Genetics Society of America. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Perspectives
Ogbunugafor, C Brandon
Edge, Michael D
Gattaca as a lens on contemporary genetics: marking 25 years into the film’s “not-too-distant” future
title Gattaca as a lens on contemporary genetics: marking 25 years into the film’s “not-too-distant” future
title_full Gattaca as a lens on contemporary genetics: marking 25 years into the film’s “not-too-distant” future
title_fullStr Gattaca as a lens on contemporary genetics: marking 25 years into the film’s “not-too-distant” future
title_full_unstemmed Gattaca as a lens on contemporary genetics: marking 25 years into the film’s “not-too-distant” future
title_short Gattaca as a lens on contemporary genetics: marking 25 years into the film’s “not-too-distant” future
title_sort gattaca as a lens on contemporary genetics: marking 25 years into the film’s “not-too-distant” future
topic Perspectives
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9713434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36218390
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyac142
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