Replicas and human perfection: «The Brazil Boys» and «GATTACA»
Abstract The possibility of human cloning has been a worrisome subject since the birth of the sheep Dolly in 1997. The advances in molecular genetics and the assisted reproduction techniques in the last thirty years have shown its feasibility that seemed remote after the frog cloning in 1952. The cinematographic view has ranged from the terror like Invasion of the body snatchers (1956) to the humor of Sleeper (1973). However, in the last years several films have used a more scientific approach to show negatively what will happen if it was finally possible to clone humans. As for the majority of people, communication media and popular movies are the only way to obtain information about scientific issues, we consider that the analysis of films and of its historical and scientific context is of interest to know better the social understanding of these facts. We have chosen The Boys from Brazil (1978) and GATTACA (1997) to perform such analysis. Both movies allow the interpretation of the possible consequences of human cloning in a particular situation or as a socially accepted tool. In addition, the films permit to analyze the critical issue of how human identity is built, from biological, social determinism or both.
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Soto-Nieto F, Fernández FJ. Entre Dios y los hombres. La práctica médica y científica a través del cine. Madrid: Dykinson S.L. 2010; pp. 251-270.
Baños JE, Aramburu JF, Sentí M. Biocinema: la experiencia de emplear películas comerciales con estudiantes de Biología. Rev Med Cine. 2005; 1:42-46.
Blanco Mercadé A. Clonación humana y otros conflictos éticos en La isla / The Island (2005). Rev Med Cine 2009; 5:147-151.
Cormick C. Cloning goes to movies. História, Ciências, Saúde. 2006; 13:181-212.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s0104-59702006000500011
Davis K. Discrimination down to a science. Nature. 1997; 390: 33.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/37718
de Prada Pérez, F.J. Manipulación genética: el nuevo monstruo de Frankenstein en el cine. Rev Med Cine. 2007; 3: 68-75.
Fisher CB, McCarthy H. Ethics in prevention science involving genetic testing. Prev Sci. 2013; 14: 310-318.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11121-012-0318-x
Gómez-Sánchez AI, Hellín-Ortuño PA, San Nicolás-Romera C. La representación de la clonación en la ficción cinematográfica. Una aproximación metodológica para un análisis científico en el cine. Palabra Clave. 2011; 14: 216-234.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2011.14.2.2
Hellsten I. Dolly; scientific breakthrough or Frankenstein’s monster? Journalistic and scientific metaphors of cloning. Metaphor and Symbol 2000; 15:213-221.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327868MS1504_3
Hopkins PD. Bad copies: How popular media represent cloning as an ethical problem. The Hastings Center Report. 1998; 28: 6-13.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3527566
Huxford J. Framing the Future: science fiction frames and the press coverage of cloning. J Media Cult Studies. 2000; 14: 188-196.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713657706
Kirby DA. Extrapolating race in GATTACA: genetic passing, identity, and the science of race. Lit Med 2004; 23:184-200.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lm.2004.0006
Kirby DA. The new eugenics in Cinema: Genetic Determinism and Gene Therapy in GATTACA. Sci Fict Studies. 2000; 27: 193-210.
McDougall R. Acting parentally: an argument against sex selection. J Med Ethics 2005; 31: 601-605.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.2004.008813
McKinell RG, Di Berardino MA. The Biology of Cloning: History and Rationale. BioScience. 1999; 49: 875-883.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1313647
Pérez Triviño JL. Gattaca. Rev Bioética Derecho 2009; 15:6-9. Disponible en www.bioeticayderecho.ub.es. Consultada el 24 de noviembre de 2013.
Petersen A. Biofantasies: genetics and medicine in the print news media. Social Sci Med. 2001; 52: 1255-1268.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00229-X
Rose C. How to teach biology using the movie science of cloning people, resurrecting the death, and combining flies and humans. Pub Understand Sci. 2003; 12: 289296.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963662503123007
Rose CS. Biology in the movies: using the double-edged sword of popular culture to enhance public understanding of science. Evol Biol 2007; 34:49-54.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11692-007-9001-8
Soto-Nieto F, Fernández FJ. Entre Dios y los hombres. La práctica médica y científica a través del cine. Madrid: Dykinson S.L. 2010; pp. 251-270.
Rodríguez, G., & Baños, J.-E. (2014). Replicas and human perfection: «The Brazil Boys» and «GATTACA». Journal of Medicine and Movies, 10(2), 60–67. Retrieved from https://revistas.usal.es/cinco/index.php/medicina_y_cine/article/view/13570
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