Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1997

GATTACA A film written and directed by AndrewNiccol Columbia Pictures: 1997

Kevin Davies

Inside a darkened medical laboratory, thecamera hovers over the shoulder of a youngscientist as he stares intently at the fluorescingpurple bands of DNA in the gel in front of him.Suddenly, he leans back and cries “Bingo!” Acombination of in vitro fertilization and state-of-the-art DNA testing has yielded an eight-cell human embryo possessing the ideal com-bination of genetic markers — one that couldnot only spare the child-to-be from develop-ing the fatal genetic illness running in its family but, even more remarkably, provide alifeline for the family’s oldest child who is cer-tain to die unless a matching bone marrowdonor is found.

No, this is not a scene from the new science-fiction thriller GATTACA, but a veryreal example from a recent television docu-mentary of the power of modern medicaltechnology, whereby techniques such aspreimplantation genetic diagnosis can beused to select embryos untainted by one of atleast a dozen fatal disease genes. The tech-nique has produced more than a hundredhealthy births so far (although, as in the casedescribed above, embryo reimplantationfrequently fails).

Now imagine this kind of technology car-ried to eugenic extremes, where the well-offcan check off a host of desired traits while theembryo is still bathing in the Petri dish. InGATTACA, Andrew Niccol’s disturbingvision of the not-too-distant future, thegenetically élite ‘valids’ are a group of super-intelligent, buff specimens whose impressive‘genetic quotient’ reflects the removal ofknown deleterious traits (aggressive tenden-cies, baldness) and the enhancement of others(usually height but, for the budding concertpianist, a pair of extra fingers). By contrast,naturally conceived ‘in-valids’ — their as-sorted neurological and developmental defi-ciencies diagnosed immediately at birth —are consigned to the genetic ghetto, uninsuredand unemployed except for menial tasks.

Among them is Vincent (Ethan Hawke),whose congenital heart condition and lowlife-expectancy exclude him from joining theflourishing space programme. Undeterred,Vincent strikes a deal with Jerome (an excel-lent Jude Law), a crippled former athlete, toassume his ‘valid’ identity (becoming a ‘de-gene-erate’ to use the vernacular). As iforthopaedic surgery to add a few inches wasn’t enough, Vincent’s deceit must work atthe DNA level, thus requiring him to carryJerome’s blood, urine, fingerprints — even

dandruff ! Our hero pulls it off, but his rapidascension up the ranks of the Gattaca Corpo-ration, where he aspires to navigate the firstmanned mission to Titan, is suddenly jeopar-dized when the mission director is blud-geoned to death, leaving Vincent the primesuspect courtesy of an incriminating eyelash.As he dodges the police, Vincent seeks help inthe form of his beautiful colleague Irene (UmaThurman), who has a genetic make-up prob-lem of her own to contend with.

GATTACAproclaims that “there is no genefor the human spirit”, but the film willinevitably draw flak for fostering the erro-neous impression that DNA and destiny are soclosely intertwined. For example, recent stud-ies clearly show that the influence of specificgenes on personality traits such as ‘noveltyseeking’ and ‘neuroticism’ is tangible butquite restricted, and that environmental cuesare at least as important as the sum of the(mostly unknown) hereditary factors. Theevidence points to genetic predisposition, butnot predetermination.

In other respects, GATTACA is a surpris-ingly pedestrian affair given the controversialadvertising campaign heralding its release(“Children made to order… it is now possibleto engineer your offspring”). Niccol won’treveal how he thinks the gene selectionprocess might work (no cute Jurassic Park-style cartoons here) or how one can obtain aninstantaneous DNA readout from a singlehair as easily as picking up a prescription(gene chips, perhaps?). What is more, Vin-cent’s subterfuge would surely have beenexposed if the intensive security collectedbuccal swabs instead of blood samples.

Nevertheless, GATTACA spotlights somethorny issues regarding genetic discrimina-

tion and technology in this, the tenth anniver-sary of the first funding for the HumanGenome Project. Just how far might prospec-tive parents be willing to go if offered thechance to shape their child’s physical and psy-chological profile before birth? The exercisingof parental choice in gender selection ishideously apparent in those parts of the worldthat practise infanticide. But in developedcountries, an estimated 2,000 babies of pre-ferred gender have been born by separating X-and Y-chromosome sperm before in vitro fertilization. Although mostly used to avoidsex-linked disorders, this service is also avail-able for what one centre blandly terms “thepurpose of family balancing”.

Then there is the matter of intelligence.One clinic in California has produced hun-dreds of babies from the sperm of Nobel laure-ates despite criticism from the likes of the lateNikolaas Tinbergen, who observed that thenarcissism of his fellow Nobelists “raiseddoubts about their possession of the very assetthey want to pass on to their offspring: intelli-gence”. Even so, James Watson probably got itright when he said: “If we could honestlypromise young couples that we knew how togive them offspring with superior character,why should we assume they would decline?”

A final disappointment in GATTACA is theunder-developed role of the magnificent UmaThurman. An admiring former director of MsThurman said once: “She’s like Garbo. Fea-ture for feature it shouldn’t work, but putthem all together and you get this incredibleface.” There’s a moral in there somewhere.Kevin Davies, former editor of Nature Genetics, is atthe Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 4000 JonesBridge Road, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815-6789,USA.

NATURE | VOL 390 | 6 NOVEMBER 1997 33

Discrimination down to a sciencefilm review

Splice girl: Uma Thurman would like to rearrange her DNA in GATTACA.

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