is also known as GM2 gangliosidosis or Hexosaminidase A deficiency (lack of this protein). This causes a lack of gangliosides (chemical broken down by protein) breakdown. TSD is a autosomal recessive genetic disorder, which means that it is inherited from genetics (your parents) when you are born. This disease effects the nervous system. This disease happens directly in Chromosome 15.
How do you get this disease? --A child must receive the gene from EACH parent in order to have TSD. When each parent has the gene, the child has a 25% chance of getting the disease. D: If only one parent gives the child the gene, then the child becomes a carrier. Carriers don't have symptoms of the disease but the can pass it on to their children!
Who is it common in? Surprisingly, 1 in 27 people of the Ashkenazi Jewish population get this disease.
How bad does it get? TSD is classified into three different parts: infantile, juvenile, and adult forms. Most people have infantile form. Which if found when they are infants and it progresses until they die around for or five years of age. Late-onset Tay-Sachs is very rare. It's the kind of TSD that affects adults.
What about symptoms? Since it affects the brain, your going to find symptoms like: Slow growth Seizures Loss of motor skills & muscle function Deafness Blindness Irritability Delayed metal and social skills
Treatment? If the Dr detects signs of TSD they do things like a physical exam & an eye test. As far as treating the disease to get rid of it... there is no way YET there is ONLY ways to make the patient comfortable.
So basically? TSD is a fatal genetic disorder that you have no way of preventing. It normally occurs when the child is first born, but there are other rare forms of the disease. There is no treatment for this disease either.
Everyone has the same set of genes.. There is actually about 20,000 in all & we are 99.5 % the same. We all have about 50 million cells in our body & each one contains unique traits about our body. These are DNA :D The letters in the DNA alphabet are A T G & C.. A's always match up with T's.. G's always match up with C's.. DNA forms ladder type structures within your cells. Chromosomes are organized into short sequences called genes. Your genes decide what you look like and things like this. You inherit genes from your mommy & daddy! Cells use genes to make proteins!
Why do you think Vincent left his family, tearing his picture out of the family photo, after winning the swimming race against his brother?
I believe that Vincent left his family because he felt like staying there wasn't the best option for him. He wanted to prove everyone wrong by becoming what everyone said he wouldn't, and he did!
Describe the relationship between Vincent and Anton.
Anton was always put above Vincent. Everyone believed that since Anton didn't have the "flaw" that Vincent did, he could accomplish so much more.
When Jerome Morrow said to Vincent/Jerome, “They’re not looking for you. When they look at you, they only see me,” what did he mean? Can you find any parallels to this type of situation in real life?
When the real Jerome Morrow said that to Vincent he was trying to explain that when they see him, they see no flaws because Jerome was supposed to be "flawless". Therefore, they wouldn't be looking for a flaw or someone else behind the scenes. In real life I would have to say that there is a lot of things like this. In many situations people want perfection, so when they see the light of perfection they don't want anything to change it.
Choose your favorite character from the film. Explain why you choose that person. Would you want to be that person? Why? Why not?
My favorite person would have to be the real Jerome Morrow even though I strongly disagree with some of the decisions he made. He had to be my favorite person because he didn't want perfection like everyone else did, he wanted to be normal. He was unselfish enough to give up his life & his body to someone who made something of it. Even in the end, he thought of it as Vincent lent him his dream not that Jerome gave Vincent his body. I'm not sure if i would want to be him, because in the end he did choose the easy way out, but I believe he was a good person.
At the end of the film, you are told that the Doctor knew about Vincent all along. Why did the Doctor go along with the fraud? What would you have done if you were the Doctor?
The doctor went along with the fraud because Vincent had achieved something that his son wanted so badly. Vincent cheated the system to achieve his dream, and if that's what it took I'm sure the doctor would want his son to achieve his dreams as well. If I were the doctor, I would have went along with the fraud because, in a sense, all he was doing was living his dream. Just because someone has the possible heart problem that shows in their DNA traits doesn't mean they don't have the right to become WHATEVER they want! It's like telling someone who has asthma they can't become an athlete.
The technology to do what was done in the movie is definitely possible within the next fifty years. Do you think that Vincent’s world could eventually happen in America? Why?
I believe that it actually could happen, but the likelihood of that exact thing is unlikely. Maybe the pizza order video may happen (everyone has access to all of your information) but I don't believe certain things (like jobs) will be blocked off because of a possibility of a disease.
What do you think is wrong with the society portrayed in "GATTACA"? What is right?
I believe they TRIED to make a good society and their intentions weren't bad. That would probably be what is right. Outside of that the society in GATTACA wasn't right because of the restrictions it included. Vincent is a PERFECT example that ANYONE can be whatever their little heart desires!
What were the screenwriters trying to tell us through the episode of the 12-fingered pianist? Is anything wrong with engineering children to have 12 fingers if, as a result, they will be able to make extraordinarily beautiful music?
Every person has their own talents. I don't think that people should engineer children or people to have the certain traits that they want them to. Its selfish.
You and your spouse are having a child and are at the Genetic Clinic pictured in the movie. What characteristics would you want for your child and what would you ask to be excluded? Why would you make those choices?
I honestly wouldn't want to make ANY choices. I would want my child to be perfect in his/her own way.. not in mine!
Picture yourself as either Vincent, Jerome, or Anton. Would you have acted the same or done things differently if you were in the same world as them?
I would of done a lot of things different in Jerome's position. I would continued to live my life after Vincent took over his identity. There wasn't a reason to do what he did.
How does the society in GATTACA resemble the type of society America was during the height of the eugenics movement?
America wanted people to be perfect. They even sterilized people to keep them from passing on certain traits to their children. It resembles GATTACA a whole lot!
