watch Gattaca movie and answer Questions

 I would like you watch the movie Gattaca. Following are some details of the movie. The movie is a very famous movie and you should not have problems finding it on Netflix or other places. You may incur a small cost. Though the theme is genetics, it is relevant to sharing of information without one’s consent, forcing one to share information, ineffective laws protecting information, ineffective recourse once information is out, etc.

Once you have watched the movie you will answer the following questions (Questions adopted fromhttp://wwwx.cs.unc.edu/~pozefsky/COMP380_S08/GattacaPaper.html). You may decide to do some additional research also (please use CITES, if needed):

1. During a gala party scene in GATTACA a woman submits a saliva sample from a recent kiss to screen her potential boyfriend/husband's DNA.  Is she violating his rights by doing this without his knowledge?  Is this, in any way, similar to performing a background check?  Think about the law in some states to collect your DNA if you have been accused, or convicted, of a felony and storing it for future uses? Should this be allowed?

2. Vincent states in the movie that "it's illegal to discriminate --'genoism' it's called -- but no one takes the laws seriously."  This is in fact one of the standard criticisms of genetic profiling: if we have genetic data on people, then employers or insurance companies will use that data to minimize financial risk. Assuming that this will happen at some point in time, would the benefits of genetic profiling still outweigh the disadvantages? Would you support genetic profiling? Remember once the profile is there, it can easily get leaked.

3. Knowledge of one's genetic screen could profoundly affect the price of insurance.  Insurance companies operate on a risk assessment basis, where individuals with a greater potential of developing health complications are charged more than individuals who are deemed healthy.  Actuaries look at statistics to determine how much their clients should be charged—or if they should be denied coverage or payment.  With current advancements in genetic testing, there is the potential to discriminate those with "bad genes."  It is quite possible that individuals classified as “high risk individuals” may be denied the opportunity to purchase insurance based on genetic testing (this already occurs based on prior diagnoses or “indicators” of future illnesses).  However, insurance companies must operate as a business, looking out for themselves and their clients' best interests.  What are the implications of such decisions? (For the sake of simplicity, we will not address ObamaCare or similar government health systems.)