Cinematic Genetics: GATTACA, Essentially Yours, and the Rhetoric of Genetic Determinism

Abstract

This essay investigates the Australian Law Reform Commission's (ALRC) use of the fictional film GATTACA in the policy brief, “Essentially Yours,” as a rhetorical commonplace to frame various ethical, legal, and scientific issues related to genetic technologies. Because emerging genetic therapy technologies invite both fear and fascination, the ALRC faces the rhetorical challenge of maintaining a distinction between genetic science and its fictional representations. I argue that their use of GATTACA expands the rhetorical landscape by allowing argument forms traditionally absent from scientific discourses. “Essentially Yours” employs GATTACA to illuminate social, legal, and ethical considerations that both challenge deterministic discourses and to promote the value of genetic science. This expansion of the rhetorical landscape identifies new avenues for scientists and nonscientists to converse about the ethical and social dimensions of science policy even as explicit scientific knowledge remains elusive to nonscientific audiences.