Gattaca
This film was based on the use of genetic engineering becoming the norm for childbirth, where a mother and father can choose the sex of the child and create a "super human" that surpasses the qualities of any naturally born child. The film was set in the near future and follows the main character Ethan Hawk, who was born naturally, through his experiences of trying to be accepted as an equal to the genetically enhanced. He adopts the life of Jerome Morrow, a genetically engineered human, in order to be accepted to finally fly into space as he dreamed his entire life.
Posthuman Bodies
In this text the author cited many literary examples of "reproductive technology" used in postmodern literature, such as Mary Shelley's Frankentstein and also Robin Cook's Mutation. The examples that Squier cited mostly dealt with these three images that she felt molded the idea of "reproductive technology", the ectogenetic fetus, surrogate mother, and the pregnant man. Squier ends the text with the conclusion that these three images "overshadow and repress" the pregnant female body.
Terms Ectogenesis- gestation outside the body of a woman in an artificial uterus.
Reproductive Technology- new ways of reproducing humans ranging from the actual to the hypothetical.
Sugar- the surrogate mother in Jolley's The Sugar Mother.
Embryology- The science dealing with the formation, development, structure, and functional activities of embryos.
Theory of Epigenesis- the notion that an embryo develops from lesser to greater organization in the course of gestation.
This film was based on the use of genetic engineering becoming the norm for childbirth, where a mother and father can choose the sex of the child and create a "super human" that surpasses the qualities of any naturally born child. The film was set in the near future and follows the main character Ethan Hawk, who was born naturally, through his experiences of trying to be accepted as an equal to the genetically enhanced. He adopts the life of Jerome Morrow, a genetically engineered human, in order to be accepted to finally fly into space as he dreamed his entire life.
Posthuman Bodies
In this text the author cited many literary examples of "reproductive technology" used in postmodern literature, such as Mary Shelley's Frankentstein and also Robin Cook's Mutation. The examples that Squier cited mostly dealt with these three images that she felt molded the idea of "reproductive technology", the ectogenetic fetus, surrogate mother, and the pregnant man. Squier ends the text with the conclusion that these three images "overshadow and repress" the pregnant female body.
Terms Ectogenesis- gestation outside the body of a woman in an artificial uterus.
Reproductive Technology- new ways of reproducing humans ranging from the actual to the hypothetical.
Sugar- the surrogate mother in Jolley's The Sugar Mother.
Embryology- The science dealing with the formation, development, structure, and functional activities of embryos.
Theory of Epigenesis- the notion that an embryo develops from lesser to greater organization in the course of gestation.
- Do you think that the existence of the three images that Squiers cites in contemporary literature overshadows and suppresses the pregnant female body?
- If it became the norm to be genetically engineered in our society do you think people be so judgmental and prejudice of the naturally born humans such as in Gattaca?
- Why do you think in The Sugar Mother they refer to the surrogate mother as "sugar"?
- If ever faced with the question of whether or not your child would be genetically engineered to be the best human you can create or to gamble with natural childbirth, which would you choose?
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