An Ethical Review Essay Example

An Ethical Review Essay Example An Ethical Review Essay An Ethical Review Essay SYNOPSIS In the imagination of â€Å"the not-too-distant† future of our world, the movie Gattaca by Andrew Niccol revolves around the technological advancement of genetics that allows society to eliminate almost all possibilities of defects in the newborns. However, Vincent Freeman, the protagonist, is a product of the obsolete method of conceiving and was born with a number of dysfunctions. He is determined to be an astronaut but with his â€Å"imperfections†, he has zero chance. Strong-willed and unrelenting, he assumes the identity of Jerome Morrow, crippled by an accident and is willing to help Vincent. Armed with DNA samples from Jerome, Vincent is in the quick run towards achieving his goal. In a sudden turn of events, the Mission Director is murdered and Vincent sloppily leaves an eyelash at the scene. He has to figure out a way to avoid stirring any suspicions, pass all DNA tests and hope that he can still follow his dreams. STAKEHOLDERS One of the stakeholders is Vincent Freeman. He has to take extreme measures in order to pursue his dream. Any slight mistakes would jeopardize his mission. Director Josef is also a stakeholder because after the murder of the Mission Director, he misleads the investigation held to avoid being a suspect himself. Another stakeholder is Jerome Morrow. As he â€Å"lends† his identity to Vincent, he could be convicted for being an accomplice of Vincent if the authorities ever discover his act. CHARACTERS AND THEIR ETHICAL DILEMMA The main villain in the story is Director Josef because he committed a murder for self-interest. Director Josef was in an ethical dilemma as he was about to murder the Mission Director. The Mission Director was going to abort the mission to Saturn’s 14th moon, Titan. To ensure that the mission will continue, Director Josef challenged his own ethics since he was also genetically engineered, claimed of not having any strains of violence in his genome. Vincent Freeman, the hero, was in an ethical dilemma when he requested the help from German, the man that introduced him to the original Jerome Morrow. He knew that he was breaking the law by doing so but he did what he had to do in order to pursue his ambition. ________________ ETHICAL ISSUES There are a number of issues that can be pointed out in the movie Gattaca. The main issue is the discrimination of a person by only the judgment of the genetic information in one’s DNA. People that are born naturally are considered inferior to the ones that are genetically engineered. This can be clearly seen in the life of the main protagonist of this story, Vincent Freeman. Vincent was born after the supposed outdated way of conceiving by his mother. With defects such as highly probable heart failure, among other complications, even his father thought that Vincent was not worthy of his name, Antonio. In fact, the name was given to Vincent’s brother, Anton, who was genetically superior to Vincent. Vincent’s earlier part of life was not too pleasant because even his own parents did not give any support when he showed a great interest in space odyssey. During the job interview, though he was fully prepared with all his knowledge of space navigation and physical sk ills, he was rejected because of his genetic inferiority. At Gattaca, those who are considered lesser in rank are only employed as janitors to tidy up the place while the rest are given the opportunity to work in Gattaca itself. Another issue ensues when Director Josef murdered the Mission Director. He committed the crime in order to ensure that the mission to Titan would still continue and he would live to see it. The investigation on the murder was led by none other than Vincent’s own brother, Anton. When an eyelash that belonged to Vincent was caught in the DNA sweep done by the police, he approached his brother and offered him protection before he was discovered, perhaps as an act of benevolence. The issue arises as this happens because it shows that even an officer of the law could sway from his own duty. According to John Rawl’s Veil of Ignorance, Anton should be fair by apprehending Vincent although they were brothers. Another issue to be pointed out is based on the character of Irene Cassini. She was the one that initially had a suspicion on Vincent about his true identity, especially when the Mission Director was murdered. When she discovered that Vincent was only posing as Jerome Morrow, it was already too late as she was already falling in love with him. As a law abiding citizen she should have gone to the police on her discovery. Instead, she kept it a secret and she even helped Vincent to conceal his true identity. Even though there are lot of legal issues that can actually be seen but the most important one to be clarified is when Vincent went to get help from German. He was aware that by assuming the identity of Jerome Morrow, he was in an obvious breach of the law. However, he still proceeded with the plan and went through the complicated procedures in order to cheat through the DNA tests that are constantly conducted in Gattaca. ________________ CONSEQUENTIALISM Consequentialism is a philosophy emphasizing that an act is considered ethical if the good consequences trumps the negative consequences. The villain, Director Josef committed a serious crime when he murdered the Mission Director. According to the consequentialist point of view, his action is ethical because as a result of it, the mission to Titan was able to be carried on. The hero, Vincent was also able to go on the mission and at last fulfil his dream. The action of Director Josef can be considered as an act of egoism but ultimately it bought enough time to ensure that the mission would proceed as it should be. By sacrificing his own liberty, he was able to give more benefits than burdens to others. In other words, his act of supposedly in self interest was actually an act of altruism, though it was still a crime. In fact, retributive justice was served at the end of the story as the police finally found out that Director Josef is the true culprit behind the murder of the Mission Director. DEONTOLOGY Deontology differs from the philosophy of consequentialism. Deontology focuses more on the rights or duties that motivate the decision or action rather than its consequences. The hero, Vincent Freeman assumes the identity of Jerome Morrow in order to infiltrate Gattaca and become an employee there as a navigator. He defied the law that clearly forbade a man of his stance to be on the list for the mission to Titan. From a deontologist point of view, Vincent is considered unethical because his rights or duties did not allow him to do such things just for the sake of his dreams. Although his action did no harm to others, from a deontologist point of view, it is considered very unethical. The law only allowed him to go as far as being a janitor at Gattaca. His job was only to clean the floors of Gattaca as he should, based on his DNA inferiority. Although he had known almost everything on space navigation by heart and had enhanced his physical skills, he had no rights to join the space p rogram, let alone be a navigator for the trip to Titan. It was not in his supposed job description. Clearly, his ambition does not justify his actions whatsoever. GOLDEN RULE The Golden Rule can qualify as a universal principle that requires us to treat others the way we want others to treat us. If I were to be in Director Josef’s position, I would not have murdered the Mission Director. I would have had a proper meeting with the Mission Director to sort things out professionally about continuing the mission to Titan. I would reason him out and try to talk to him without resorting to violence. I would have thought that the Mission Director might have a wife and kids of his own and I would not have their husband and father to leave them just like that. Furthermore, if I was the villain, even if I did commit the murder, I would immediately surrender myself to the police. The guilt of doing such cruel thing would destroy me if I just keep it just to myself. I had taken another person’s life it is truly unforgivable. Just by remembering the face of the person that I murdered would keep me up all night for the rest of my life. What if he did have his own family? How would they respond to such a horrible mishap that I was responsible for? Who would be responsible to take care of them? Imagine if someone else would do the same to me. My family would be left with no one to take care of them. Just because I made a horrible mistake, a lot of people are going to suffer. Plus, the act of taking another person’s life is up to God, the almighty Creator. Furthermore, I would be most ashamed towards my colleagues that I have been working with for many years. They would think that there maybe someone else just like me that would commit such crime to them. They would be very suspicious of everyone around them. The workplace will seem to be unsafe for them. Besides that, I am very ashamed to all members of the possible crew to Titan especially Vincent because I know how much he wanted to fly into space land on Saturn’s moon. My action might not result to the continuation of the mission but rather to an immediate halt altogether as the Mission Director was supposed to lead the whole expedition. As the Golden Rule would suggest, if I want others to hear me out and do as I say, I would have to hear and do as what they may say. Maybe none of the tiresome events would even have to happen and with much luck the trip to Titan can be continued without resorting to violence. ________________ LESSONS From what I have observed from the movie, people can go to very much extreme measures in order to achieve their goal. However, we must not do something that can harm or affect the lives of others in a bad way. We should actually be more prepared to handle hard situations in a correct and a proper way by ourselves. Irene Cassini is a good example of this. She was not genetically engineered and yet she managed to get into Gattaca. Vincent was not too patient about it and he resorted to unlawful measures like assuming another person’s life. Even if he did not get into Gattaca, he should be thankful that he had a job. I learned from this movie that there are vices that we should avoid and there are virtues that we should follow. Besides that, I learned that we must not discriminate others that are different or less fortunate than us. Discrimination comes in different forms such as age, sex or ethnicity. There are others that may have better skills or knowledge than us but just because they are different than us we should not mix with them. We should put aside our differences and find out what we have in common so that we can all work together as a good team. Vincent’s persona was a splendid example of what reality is like for us. A most valuable lesson indeed: Do not judge a book by its cover. Next, in our everyday endeavour, we should always use our aql before we do anything and think of all the consequences of the action that we were about to do. The benefits and burdens should be identified, whether it is for us or for other people. I also learned that every action will not go unjustified, whether it is distributive, compensatory or retributive justice from God. By the God’s will, the vices will be punished and the virtues will be handsomely awarded, if not now, in the afterlife. I also learned that parents should not be selective of how each of the children are treated. They all must be treated as equally as the others. Unhappy childhood could result to many complications as they grow up so it is up to the parents to make sure that they children are in the right track. Lastly, we should not practise the syaitaniyyah behaviour such as selfishness and lying because it can affect our lives in a bad way. We should also try to avoid doing things like altering our genetic codes just to be more superior because we would be changing how God intend us to be and that is sinful.