5.+1-+Genetics+-+The+Last+Frontier

STUDENTS' OPINIONS :)) Firstly, I enjoyed the film. I like this kind of films and besides all the theory, they also bring us a message. In this particular case, Jerome committed suicide because he wanted to let Vincent pursue his dream, in order not to make him feel bad for pretending to be Jerome and being happy with his 'new' life. And with Irene, Vincent felt he could trust her. Instead of giving the police slip alone, he chose escaping with Irene and telling her the truth. Mariana11thA I'm pleased that you liked the film. I love science fiction and agree that this movie extends our knowledge on some genetic issues and does it in a pleasant and emotional way. As for Jerome's suicide, it seems we go back to he discussion we had about the movie "Remember Me". Can suicide be an act of courage or cowardice? Can we really "lend our dreams" to the others? Do we have the right to fight for our beliefs no matter what? ANA At first, I wasn't really enjoying the film. As I was watching it, I could only see men and women in black suits working on the whitest building, did'nt actually think that it would be funnuy. However, I gotta admit that the second part was definitely more enjoyable than the first! They inserted the romance, more action, and in the end it was a nice movie. However, in my opinion, it wasn't the best movie we've seen in english classes. Rita Rebelo
 * This page will also be open till next __Friday, the 1st Apri__l. Don't forget this is the deadline for your WIKI participation this term! Make sure this last page keeps up to the standards of your previous ones!** I. The film "Gattaca" raises a number of serious and problematic issues that have been troubling mankind for some years now. A. You've watched it in class; so, you should be ready to share your opinions on it. Are you up to the task? Feel free to do it here. media type="youtube" key="m_nkVmRSpfE" height="273" width="448"Here's the worksheet you're supposed to do. [[file:Gattaca_Worksheet.doc]]Pay attention to the mosaic you have to analyse in class! I've posted the site where I took it from.

B. It is the near future and Vincent/Jerome Morrow has a problem. A genetic problem. He is an imperfect man in a perfect world. Every day it seems as if people are discovering new uses for the human genetic code. Hardly a day passes when there isn't a researcher who claims to have found another miracle gene. One for obesity, for cancer, for asthma, for manic-depression, and so forth. Gene therapy is on the rise... How do you feel about gene therapy? Should it (or not) raise any ethical issues? I don't think that we should worry about manipulating genes to improve and help our population evolution. It's important to consider the people that conceived babies with the purpose to extend their genetic code, as an original code, for a long family. But if someone wants to change his genes, does he have the right to do it? Edgar, 11º A I think we have the right to be as our desire. But I also think we shouldn't manipulate our children's genes, because they will have the power of decisions when they grow up and we should just conveive them naturally. However, I don't see any obstacle against selecting OUR OWN genes when we have wisdom enough to do it, and if we are psychologically prepared to do that. Mariana11thA

Gene therapy doesn't necessarily create social problems. I wouldn't mind to have to do DNA exams frequently, and I see no big deals on giving it some relevance on professional interviews when you're applying for some job. And I'd like to select my children's genes, I would like them to be the best of me. Almeida, 11º A

I share my opinion with Almeida and Edgar. There is no problem about this stuff. This is just great. And imagining that we already live in such a world, I would be not well leaving my daughter to luck. I wouldn't be able to answer her when she asked:" Daddy, why didn't you choose my DNA so that I could live well? Why did you let me get all these diseases?" Slotter Gene therapy might generate some ethical problems, but it's like everything that's connected with the human beings' health. In my opinion, the choice is up to those who decide to have a baby. We have the habit to mess with the other people's lives and try to advise them to choose the correct path. There are some things that should only concern ourselves and this is one of those things. Filipe 11ª D Gene therapy is, in my opinion, something really controversial because it raises a lot of ethical, political and religious issues. Some people may think that gene therapy could be against god's will. In spite of that, I think that the advantages that it could bring to humanity are so many that the final balance of its use would be positive. We would be able to avoid all the diseases that are the result from genetic mutations. However, it is difficult to achieve an agreement about it because there are many perspectives and points of view about this issue.

Ana Paula 11ºD
Excellent opinons :)) Keep up the excellent work! You've proved to be very mature and to have given the matter deep thought. However, I would like to ask you: should we allow everybody to have our genetic information and mess with it? Shouldn't we be entitled to some privacy? ANA privacy? In the future there will be no id cards or credit cards, it will all be based on our DNA. Like a finger print or a blood sample.. It will just be a way of simplifying things. Nuno Bico 11th D

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Gattaca is a very interesting movie that showed us how society will be in the future. I found a bit scary the way they analysed the child dna when he was born and told all the diseases he was likely to have and the age he was going to die, I wouldn't like to know that, but anyways I also found crazy the search for perfection I guess it took away the natural process of life. Filipa Duarte 11thA======

I’m going to talk a little bit about everything, as I’ve only joined this page now. I didn’t really like the movie, because I’m not a big fan of science fiction movies. However, I do think this is an important issue we will be facing in the future: changes in our DNA code. In relation to it, I believe that all the research that has been done is helpful and I don’t see any problem in improving people’s quality of life. If we can prevent some diseases, I believe we should do it. Nevertheless, we have to be careful, because development has always a negative side. Some people would use this improvement to negative purposes, others would probably become obsessed with perfection and the essence of people would be even more related to their physical characteristics, rather than their psychological ones. Having said this, I think we have to be careful with what we dream about and expect to achieve, as at the end of the day, we feel good with people with whom we relate to and not with the more successful and powerful one. Sorry again for writing so much. Nuria 11D

Aren't we all searching for perfection? Don't we all want the best for us and for the ones who will carry our name? It may bring some problems, as mankind allways finds a negative use for everything, but if it is well inspectionated, we could all be much happier if we knew what our genes carry. Answering the teacher's question, if people used that information to employ better employees, more specified for that function, why not? Companies would produce much more, with less employees, and that would make prices go down. But that's just my humble opinion. Waiting for replies.

João Neto

First of all i think the movie was great. For the year it was done it had a great picture of the future and how things can actually evolve into. My favorite character as i said in class ( :p ) is the doctor since he saw in Vincent his own son and helped him follow his dream even tho the "rules" said he couldn't. To answer Joao Neto well think about it a perfect world it would be terrific in terms of work but what would happen next ? ppl would get just more and more bored day after day and they would just try to go back to the imperfect ways just to "spice it up" anyway as u said that's just my humple opinion :P About the suicide issue well it depends on the case for example in GATTACA the reason why Jerome tried it was because he didn't got the first place in that competetion and since he was born to be perfect he should have won 1st place not 2nd so in my opinion it was an act of cowardice but sometimes life is so bad that u see no other hope and you have no one to help you in that case when u see no other option for me that's an act of courage but i think there's not much of these last ones since you can always have anyone to help you to bring you back up to cheer you on etc so for me most of the cases of suicide are acts of cowardice but in the end of the movie the suicide of Jerome was an act of courage he killed himself to help Vincent achieve his own dreams and made Vincent the "real" Jerome.

Ricardo Afonso

I really think that we need to talk to ourselves twice before making the technology our life. Those measures that appeared in the movie, they can be very great and can help us a lot but they also can destroy the human race. In Gattaca people were not a spiece anymore they were like "robots" controled by their genetic information and not by what their genetic onformation produces. The free spirit of "In to the wild" have just desappear and all because of US. We must not only think and creat good things to our races but also things that do not destroy the basics of it. People are still people no matter what their genetic ingormation has. Renato 11ºD

I agree with Nuno Bico, our society is too much fullfiled of burocracy, the more we simplify, the better. And in terms of privacy, I see no problems. Our DNA records would be in the Department of Health (which belongs to the government) and we would have no need to share them with anyone besides the person to whom we would do our job interview (if required for the job we were applying) and federal organizations. And I still want my kids' genes to be selected. Almeida, 11º A

**I'm surprised to see that both you, Almeida, and Nuno Bico give priority to simplification over privacy. In spite of respecting your opinions, I strongly disagree with them. I think of all the people that have been discriminated due to being HIV positive and all I can think of is the huge dimension of the problem when "our DNA records become the property of the government", as you put it. ** Having HIV has nothing to do with the topic. Firstly, if your childrens' DNA is selected, nobody will have HIV. Secondly, the government can always get your DNA easily. Finnaly, having DNA records used more often, there's no need for the existance of the so called "gene discrimination". Genetics won't be as relevant as in "GATTACA". That would be foolish. Almeida, 11º A

**You're extremely radical as usual and you'll never be able to convince me no matter what. Firstly, having HIV has to do with the topic because we're ultimately dealing with discrimination (the basis to justify it is irrelevant). Secondly, you are right: "the government can always get our DNA easily", but should the government do it??? That's another issue. Governments come and go and there are so many regimes that have done atrocities based on the people's well-being and their high values that I feel sick of thinking about it. I don't believe anyone should have the right to mess with our own genes, even less the government. Thirdly, I'm not in favour of having children based on gene manipulation on a petri dish, except for the cases I mentioned of high risk of deformities or serious diseases. I like our world the way it is, where children are born the natural way and competition is as good as it is. Finally, I like sci-fi films but I see them as science fiction, nothing else, and I would be terrified if the reality they depict turned into OUR REALITY. However, it's very healthy to be as passionate as you are. ANA **

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By the other hand, it has bean recorded in 1997 and it predicted well some stuff like the electic cars and the "new way to make life", which are being developed and, probably, will be ordinary in a few years. But it has also missed some stuff like the kind of clothes that people will probably wear and the cars look, specially the the noise they do wile moving and the green headlights which doesn't make any sense (sinse the Thomas Edisson's lamp that we produce it with white or yellow lights because these are the colours more close to the Sun light and I don't understand why should they be green). Other bad prediction, in my opinion, is the udge number of rocket launches (more than 7) per day. I can't imagine where U.S. goverment would get money enought to pay for so much spaceships, fuel and astronauts training, and I don't know what will they have to do in space to have so much people there.======

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I've read here lots of coments saying bad about the "future USA's policys about genes". That proves that people still thinking and sayin what other people would like to hear insteaf of think and see the situation by all the possible angles. I totaly agree with that kind of policy! If we can have something perfect by a different method, why to use the one that brings us imperfect things?? There were the parents that made the wrong choice, not the goverment that tryes to not waste money (it's more a less the same that what happens in Africa: they think: "I have no money to have a house, to protect myself, to eat and for drink wather! The solution is have children to suffer like me and to have one more person to feed and spend resources with!!" and after the complayn and ask for help to the other countries that sees them like poor black people and help theme). And why are always the USA the bad ones?======

Filipe Figueiredo 11º A
==== I think that, as it is said in the movie, genes are not that important because what matters is your will; if you really want something and you work for it, you should be able to achieve it. The film gives us the example of Anthony Freeman who wasn't supposed to be able to travel to Saturn because of his genetic configuration and, as he really wanted to apply for that job and travel in the space, he was able to succeed in his job and made his way to Saturn, despite all the difficulties he had. He had to fake his own identity by using Jerome Morrow's identity. It was hard to hide his own identity with so much technology and, consequently, ways to find out that he wasn't really Jerome. But in the end he proved that his will power was bigger than his status of "in-vaild" or the fact that he was a "faith birth". ==== ==== Something I found weird on this film was the fact that it showed us that the perception of future technology back in 1997 was something that, to me, seems a bit "late in time" I guess, because it all seemed like fake technology compared to nowadays technology. But it was an interesting fact because it makes us realize that technology develops faster than our minds creativity, because I think that some of the gadgets that exist and are common today were out of people's imagination in 1997. ====

Luís Tomás 11º A
====Luís, if you go to the begginig of the movie you can see that it's meant to be in a not so distant future you don't have to think is fake or "late in time" it's a movie XD In a different subject has anyone noticed that all the movies that we are presented to have subliminar messages that in very different ways link and affect our way of thinking ? I would like to thank our teacher for puting so much time into this and so we both learn even if about atoms ;) In relation to the film we find in it an intricatte relationship between human spirit and genetics. Jerome the godchild faith birthed and Jerome the 2ºnd place prodigy.. A strenous fight to accomplish is long life dream against what he could not change, the fight from scratch and trough all adversities.. The original Jerome gives up and settles his life as an induced invalid physiccaly, of course, that without a big delay spread to his spirit or mind that falls into pieces and gets burned.. Nonetheless we learn and we gain from this as much as we gain from losses and we must keep this is mind and keep and just splash a smile XD==== Guilherme Fiúza 11ºD

I think I'd only be capable of choosing my child's genes if I found out that either me or the father had a genetic disease that could compromise the child's quality of life. If not, I couldn't choose the genes. If my child was healthy, I wouldn't care if it was a boy or girl with blue or brown eyes. Marta 11ºB

I my opinion we will be able to choose or childrens but is that good? I don´t think soo because our skills are not in our bodies genes but they are in our mind.
====Have better gennes will only help us have a better life but not a better society. in terms of society as we can see in the movie, the descrimenation will increse and it will be like Hitler that want to have a perfect race.====

Sience is good but we have to know the limit... And what is that limmt? That is a queation that we have to ask...
Diogo Telo 11B nº11

I liked this film for its story but what i liked the most was that it showed us that if we work hard and dedicate your selfs on something nothing is impossible. Pipa 11D nº19

I liked watching the movie, it show us how the science can be negative for our future. The pursuit for the perfection can only be conquered by life experience, "sweat and tears", not on the laboratory tube, "There is no gene for fate". But, in the other side, i think that if i had seen him before, like in the year when it was premier, i would liked really much more. This is because i didn't get the sensation of "science fiction film", the cars, the machines, the computer's, all the plot seem too much undeveloped.

Marcos Bispo 11B nº11

I really belive that gene terapy is undoubtdly really importante. First of all we should understand that this process is based on a tranference of genetic material to dysfunctional cells. Due to its development, probably, in a next future we will be able to prevent or even cure some diseases like cancer and other viral diseases. Besides, some diseases like metabolic ones, which are related to enzyme deficiency, will have a cure. However nowadays this techiniques aren't used. This is explained by the fact that they could introduce health problems. So, as biology is really complex it needs to be developed after being used properly.

Filipa Pina 11.ºD

Well, in relation to what you teacher had asked, i'm standing with the same opinion Nuno Bico told in class D. In some cases, genetics, I think, can save lifes. We can't forget about that. Like my other colleague said, Vitória, we just need to know when we're passing the limit, when it concerns to genetic manipulation. So YES, genetics may raise some ethical issues! These ethical issues are actually related to those limits. When you research, or your plans in gentics go far beyond the limit, there's always a human consequence. Because, you know, we are not defined just by our DNA, that's why there are many ethical question around this topic! As we all 3 classes are in areas related to science, talking to future scientist and present mates, we gotta know when we pass the line. If it will some how, raise ethical problems, you just need to have the plan in mind, but you don't actually need to concretize it. Like our mothers say, when it feels like it's enough, it's enough ! XD Mariana Marques

Gene therapy when used to reach success like Vincent’s case in the movie shouldn’t be necessary because in spite of having always proved that he was gifted to space travelling if he hadn’t been submitted to that process he could never have succeed. Like him there are many more, and handicaps are still a tough barrier to overcome, something that is naturally natural but it’s fundamental to adapt rules to every different situations and to open new doors. If we want progress, we can’t keep on being retarded dealing with people. However, I’m not against that practice when it concerns to the process of healing diseases but not to hide us from the world because if we can’t accept our identity we can’t do anything else. About ethical problems, yes, off course it can raise some, but we’re also driven to make use of gene therapy owing to discrimination and segregation brought up by society. Vitória Melo 11ºD