Neurological disease, probability of 60%; bipolar disorder, probability of 40%; attention deficit disorder, probability of 89%; heart disease, probability of 99%... May die prematurely, with a life expectancy of 30.2 years.
This is what the doctor said to his parents when the protagonist Vincent was born with a genetic test sheet.
I think, I am afraid that any parent will have a hard time accepting this "sentence letter" when faced with a newborn child. Geneticists know better than God what you're going through and what it means.
This film is very delicate and deeply explores an ethical issue of genetics, which was only in 1997.
Behavioural genetics has been controversial from the very beginning, and an important aspect of it is "excellence." The so-called eugenics, which is that human beings can progress through selective reproduction, is exactly what this movie shows, and in reality, eugenics has indeed sparked a lot of movements, injecting bans on "inferior" people from immigrating to certain countries, and Hitler was a fan of eugenics to build sperm banks for Nobel Prize winners and more. And the seemingly reasonable eugenics immediately brings up a lot of ethical problems, making people feel that the consequences of intelligence, poverty, crime, mental illness, and obesity are etched in the genes, rather than experience and social environment can be changed. . (Dar-Nimrod & Heine, 2011)
Just as Vincent's parents were about to have a second child, the geneticist hoped they wouldn't be "random," arguing that "we already have so many flaws that we shouldn't let our kids suffer from it again." — Paradigm of eugenics, Before you were born, your health, appearance, physical fitness and even life expectancy were all decided, so boring.
Vincent is really not a submissive child. Even if he is frail and sick, he has many hobbies. He has loved astronomy since he was a child, and likes to swim with his genetically perfect brother Anton. He has always hoped to "rebel" the label placed on him by society. And all the reasons for this have been foreshadowed in the movie - Vincent has a mother who loves him very much.
I don't know why, Mom would rather trust God than her geneticist.
Vincent recalls saying when he was born.
After the doctor announced the "birth verdict", Vincent's father even felt that he did not deserve his name, but his mother looked at little Vincent tenderly and said:
I know he's going to do something amazing and you're going to make a difference.
In Vincent's childhood, his mother took care of him in every possible way, and tried his best to let him enjoy the education that a normal child should have (although he was rejected by the school). Even if he wanted a second child, his mother said:
We want Vincent to have a younger brother with him.
It was the mother who planted the seeds of belief in little Vincent that he could be "different" without being bound by genetics. And this turning point in life also happened when the teenager Vincent finally won the swimming competition with the perfect gene brother Anton and got it right. At this point, Vincent felt that he was no longer the weak child who did nothing, and that he could move towards his dream.
What role did Vincent's mother play?
In 1995, when psychologist Harris said that apart from genes, family had no influence on personality development, developmental psychology confirmed the influence of child rearing, family environment and even social status on personality. That is to say, we do not deny the influence of genetics on the development of children, but this influence is limited. Both genes and the environment play an important role in a child's development. Gene exists at the biological structure level, the body it acts on exists at the physiological level, and the body is located in the environment, so many factors together determine people's actions.
How can Vincent "resign" like other people with genetic defects, then his life will be as unsuspense as the beginning, and he will live in hopelessness every day. His mother's love and teaching led him to find meaning in his life, which led him to exercise another set of "self-validation".
"Self-validation" means that people have ideas about themselves and try to prove those self-concepts. People try to guide the way others treat themselves, and get feedback that is consistent with their self-concept, thereby reinforcing their original self-concept. (Swann & Ely, 1984) Vincent worked hard to learn astronomical knowledge and approached his dream of traveling around space; looking for a way to change himself, he met a scientist by hearsay and lived a double life with Jerome; most importantly, he also worked hard The training practice of making one's own behavior worthy of the "misperception" of the outside world.
Except for the fake identity, he deceived almost all people and can make contributions that are indistinguishable from those of genetically optimized people. This aspect benefits from Vincent's own efforts, as well as the "prejudice" of the outside world. As Jerome put it:
When they see you, they see not you, but me.
Prejudiced human societies already have blind spots, treating genes as absolute truths and ignoring all other possibilities.
And what do people who put away their prejudice gain? is hope.
In the last scene before Vincent left the earth, doctor Lamar found out that Vincent was not a genetically optimized person, but to Vincent's surprise, Lamar knew the truth for a long time, and he only saw the hope of his imperfect son from Vincent.
99% of human individuals are genetically identical, and behavioral genetics focuses on less than 1% of human chromosomes with differences. It is this 1% difference that gives us infinite possibilities and a splendid human society. And what each of us can do is to become a positive factor in the "environment", so that the personalities and abilities of others (especially children) can be brought into full play, rather than lead to negative consequences.
This, writing your own life and doing your best to help others, is probably the greatest joy of being a human being.
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