Advances in genetically engineered, personalized babies offer the promise of curing diseases and maximizing talents, but they can also lead to social inequality and ethical controversy, requiring careful regulation and social consensus.
What if we could learn about our diseases, strengths, and talents through DNA testing at birth? It’s the 21st century of science, and it’s no longer science fiction. In the 1970s, the Genome Project was in full swing, and 20 years later, the movie “GATAKA” was released, which showed the future based on it and shocked audiences at the time.
A brief introduction to the movie is as follows. Vincent, a child of God born from the love of his parents, is categorized as a lower-class person after a genetic reading at birth diagnoses him with a heart condition and criminal tendencies and predicts his death at age 31. From a young age, Vincent has been fascinated by space and dreams of becoming an astronaut, but it’s a job only available to the upper class with superior genes. Realizing that his genes are not enough to fulfill his dream of becoming an astronaut, he buys the dominant gene of Eugene Murrow from a gene broker. To become Eugene Murrow, he undergoes painful surgery to change his hair and lengthen his bones to match his height. Vincent, born Jerome Murrow with Eugene Murrow’s superior genes, tricks society into letting him work for Gattaca, an aerospace company, and the film ends with Vincent realizing his dream of becoming an astronaut through his daily struggle to keep his genes from being discovered.
In showing the bleak future of life sciences and genetic engineering, the film recalls the eugenics policies practiced by the Nazis in Germany. Eugenics led to the Holocaust, the mass murder of millions of Jews in Nazi Germany during World War II based on scientific racism such as eugenics and osteology. Eugenics is the practice of forcibly eliminating socially inferior people, such as the mentally ill and terminally ill, from continuing their lineage.
Is there any difference between parents who want to create a customized baby with only superior genes through genetic manipulation and Hitler, who saw Germanic people as the superior race and Jews as the inferior race and eliminated the inferior race? Whereas in the past, inferior races were eliminated based on already outwardly manifested phenomena such as violence and schizophrenia, in the near future in Gattaca, inferior genes are eliminated before the traits are outwardly manifested. These two cases are almost identical in that they involve the elimination of individuals or genes because they are inferior. The difference is that the purpose of eugenics in the past was simply to fulfill desires, whereas today’s genetic manipulation is aimed not only at fulfilling desires but also at curing incurable and inherited diseases. Genetic manipulation was originally envisioned as a technology that would be used to treat diseases once the genetic map was complete and we knew which genes were involved in which diseases. In 2003, the Human Genome Project, an international consortium of six countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. biotechnology venture Cellagenomics, completed the map of the human genome, which was expected to be a ray of light that could free us from incurable diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, but even after 10 years, we have not conquered all diseases because there are more than 12,000 genes whose exact functions are unknown in addition to causing diseases, and these genes can be complexly intertwined to cause diseases, and diseases often occur even when there is no problem with the genes.
If we can cure many diseases through genetic manipulation, it is possible to produce customized babies through genetic manipulation within that scope. If genetic modification can cure genetic diseases, it could be a way to save people around the world who suffer from genetic diseases. It would be ethically reprehensible to artificially manipulate life, but if we ban the use of genetic engineering for that reason, we should also ban IVF for infertile couples. This is because I think it is a flawed logic to say that life is God’s domain and should not be artificially created or manipulated by humans, but artificial insemination for infertile couples is possible, but genetic manipulation to treat genetic diseases is not.
The problem is that even if we allow genetic modification for therapeutic purposes, it will inevitably be used to fulfill personal desires. Plastic surgery was originally intended to be therapeutic, such as removing unsightly scars. However, as we have become a superficial society, and appearance is recognized as a talent, it has become the main purpose of cosmetic surgery, and South Korea has earned the ignominious title of the number one plastic surgery country. If genetic manipulation is carried out in a society where genes become a skill without any alternative or system, it is likely that it will become the main purpose of satisfying individual desires like plastic surgery.
Currently, our society is mired in eugenics, where parents’ occupations, education, and English grades have become the primary qualifications for any job. By making your parents’ occupation and education an important factor in your ability and success, society is unwittingly imposing the idea of genetic determinism on the population. Genetic determinism is literally the theory that genes determine everything. This theory is easily overturned by identical twin studies, which show that even identical twins with the same genes can have completely different personalities and immune systems if raised in different environments. Even if we are aware of most of these facts, genetic determinism is subconsciously ingrained in our minds due to the influence of mass media. We are addicted to our smartphones, reaching for them when we wake up, using them on the subway and bus, taking them with us when we go to the bathroom, and not letting them go until we go to sleep. As a result, our thoughts and values are shaped and changed by the media we consume, and many journalists use hyperbole to grab the reader’s attention while leaving out the important information they really want to convey. ‘There is a gene for math dislike,’ ‘Trauma is inherited,’ ‘Everything is inherited. Is it the parents’ fault that their kids can’t learn?” and so on. However, if you read the purpose of the study or the research paper, you’ll see that genetic determinism is not what these studies are trying to convey. ‘It’s all in the genes. Is it your fault your child can’t learn?”, the researchers from King’s College London, UK, state, ‘Our study aims to show that this heritability is not solely influenced by intelligence, but is determined by a combination of other traits.’ They go on to say, ‘We are not trying to draw a line under children’s abilities by suggesting that academic performance is heritable,’ and finally, ”We are trying to recognize that there are differences in the degree to which different children find learning interesting.
Even if genetic modification is used for therapeutic purposes, a society that practices genetic determinism and the misleading media that influences it will inevitably turn it into a means to fulfill human desires. In order for genetic engineering to be used in a desirable way, the mass media must be responsible and deliver only the facts, and the right social system must be in place to prevent a society in which parental ability and education become a function of individual ability.
Regardless of what kind of society we live in, one could argue that it is the parents’ freedom to choose to produce customized babies through genetic engineering. It doesn’t harm anyone else, and it’s a parental duty to help parents make life more comfortable and favorable for their children. However, this is only their desire. Even if a child is genetically selected to have high intelligence and good physical fitness, there is no guarantee that the child will be better than other children, and there is no guarantee that the customized child will be happy and advantageous in life. If genetic manipulation becomes widespread, every parent will want a superior baby with only good genes, and society will consist of people with only superior genes. Would a society of people with only good genes be a good society? I don’t think so. I once heard about the worker bee theory on TV. If you take 100 excellent worker bees and put them in a group, only 25 are hard workers. However, if you take 25 lazy worker bees from each of the four groups and create a new group, strangely enough, 25 of them will work hard again. This theory shows that even if people with the same abilities from different groups come together to form a new group, they will inevitably be ranked differently within the new group.
Even if a sperm and egg with the best genes meet to form a fertilized egg through genetic manipulation, it still has to go through the difficult process of cell division to become a fetus, and during cell division, genes are not replicated accurately and errors may appear. During this process, the expression level of the best genes varies from person to person, and even if the population consists of customized children with only the best genes, the sequence is bound to diverge. Even if we assume that there are no errors in the gene duplication process, the customized children will have unique personalities depending on the environment they live in and the education and training they receive, and the sequence will diverge again. This will lead to another round of competition and struggle for better genes, and the vicious cycle will repeat.
As mentioned earlier, the technology to select only the best genes through genetic manipulation has emerged for the purpose of curing diseases. As a technology that should be used for good purposes may be transformed into a means to fulfill personal desires when it meets a society that has fallen into genetic determinism, social policies that reflect the changes in society and protect it from being transformed into other purposes are necessary for its proper use. Since the production of customized children through genetic manipulation implies genetic determinism that genes determine everything, it is inevitable to miss the flaws of genetic determinism, and even if genetic manipulation is individual freedom and parental duty, it can be seen as a problem that may eventually lead to the repetition of a larger vicious cycle in society.
If genetic manipulation is possible for the purpose of fulfilling desires, many people will be tempted to use it to create customized children with only superior genes. However, I believe that life is not a process of using what you have from the beginning, but a process of acquiring what you don’t have through bloody efforts, and I believe that what you are born with is not your ability, but your ability to fill in the gaps and make the impossible possible. In the movie “Gattaca,” Vincent, who was born from the love of his parents, says to his younger brother while competing in a swimming competition with his younger brother who was born with superior genes through genetic engineering. “I can beat you because I have no strength left to go back.” I think it’s the knowledge of inadequacy that makes us more desperate and willing to do something, and it’s that desperation that allows someone to turn a hopeless 0.00001% chance into a miracle. In the movie, he is diagnosed with a diagnosis that he will only live to be 31, but the movie ends with him fulfilling his dreams beyond that fateful age. Although ‘Gattaca’ shows a bleak future of genetic engineering, I wonder if the purpose of the movie was to convey the meaning that even if you are a misfit in society, like Vincent, you can still pioneer your destiny.
Along with the ethical issues of genetic manipulation, we can’t ignore the new possibilities that come with technological advances. As gene editing technology becomes more sophisticated and safer, it will broaden the scope of disease prevention and treatment and enable new forms of human quality of life. For example, the ability to prevent certain genetic disorders in advance could save enormous amounts of money in healthcare costs, not only for individuals but for society as a whole. There are also opportunities to maximize different talents and abilities through personalized genes. However, despite these possibilities, if genetically engineered technologies are not properly managed and regulated, social inequalities and ethical controversies will increase.
In conclusion, the production of personalized babies through genetic modification is likely to become a reality with the advancement of science and technology, but the ethical and social issues that may arise must be carefully considered. Recognizing the limitations of genetic determinism, social consensus and regulation are needed to ensure the proper use of the technology. We must also not forget the importance of individual effort and willpower, and move towards a society that respects individual diversity and potential. The movie “Kataka” addresses these concerns and delivers an important message to us. Our challenge is to find ways to maintain a humanized life alongside the advancement of science and technology.
