Bah, Humbug!

So one thing that “Gattaca” got me thinking about was who defines what is normal and what is abnormal, and whether or not the abnormal is even something we should want to get rid of. Obviously we don’t want children dying from fatal birth defects, but at the same time there are some people who would want to use genetic engineering to get rid of “birth defects” that aren’t anything more than random deviations from rigid standards of normality. Even when you have someone who has a “birth defect” that you could argue lowers their standard of living, it is hard to draw a definite line between the harm that it could cause and the extent to which a person’s genetic quirks are part of their identity.