This week’s Flora’s films featured the 1997 science fiction movie Gattaca. This was my third or fourth time watching this movie, yet I found it to be just as enthralling as the first time.

The story takes place in the ‘not-too-distant’ future where science has advanced to a point where the majority of humanity consists of ‘designer’ babies. Parents choose traits, like gender and eye color, while the doctors guarantee that the child will not have any physical maladies, like heart disease or myopia. Nothing is left to chance.

The movie follows the story of an outcast who was conceived without eugenics and who must overcome societal genetic discrimination in order to achieve his goal of space travel.

Apart from being a great movie, Gattaca also warns its audience of what happens when science goes too far, a message that is very relevant today. The discovery and research of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 indicates that it is completely plausible that we will see the making of ‘designer’ babies in our lifetime. However, a big threat to our freedom and protection from genetic discrimination is much closer than you may think. A U.S House bill aims to mandate genetic testing of employees who will otherwise face penalties, including a rise in insurance price. The House committee claims this will “promote a healthy workforce and lower health care costs.” From works of fiction like Gattaca or Brave New World, it is hard not to imagine all that can go wrong when an entity like the government knows every citizen’s genetic code. It is a slippery slope that is quite frankly dangerous to go down.

In our society, we may be at a point where science is moving much faster than political laws or societal consensus of scientific ethics. It is important to stay cognizant so that we will not end up in a dystopian society, like the one in Gattaca.