Human Nature (2019)

Human Nature review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Human Nature is a documentary that starts and ends with tough questioning about where we as a species want to go with science. As we progress in biology, bigger discoveries are made and human life can improve. But how much do we improve? What is considered a bettering of life and what is considered eugenics? How far is too far for the movie dystopia seen in Gattaca? These are real questions that loom as DNA research is on the verge of astounding discovery.

The first half of the film is highly technical. We’re given a portrait of a young patient with a health issue of blood cells, a problem in his genes. He needs to make routine trips to the hospital for blood transfusions, his nurse equating his regular visits to a hospital akin to getting an oil change. What could help him?

Scientists believe they have made a miraculous discovery with a gene known as CRISPR. Explained in great detail, we learn that CRISPR is essentially a DNA cleaner of sorts, finding specific chains that don’t line up, cutting them out and replicating the strands that don’t have irregularities. When first discovered, it was raved about as a possible cure for most issues with gene conditions and genetic disorders.

But then the conversation shifts to the more philosophical. The questioning sets in among top minds about just how far CRISPR can go and how far we should let it go. Should we alter the DNA of a fetus if we have the tech to do so? It’s not an easy question to ask. Even the boy from the beginning of the film with a blood disorder lingers on the question if a baby with his condition could have it cured at conception. He states that he hasn’t thought that far into the future but knows that he wouldn’t want to be born without his condition because then he wouldn’t be himself. And within that consideration breeds a debate of what is to be done with CRISPR, if such abilities to manipulate genes should be placed within the realm of commercial and military orders.

Thankfully, Human Nature never veers too off course into the fantastical by placing some facts over this wild speculation. From as early as the 1980s, reporters we’re already speculating on the nature of DNA editing, pondering the fears of what it would be like to custom order your baby. Numerous scientists dispel a lot of this lackluster reporting. It would seem obvious there isn’t a gene for IQ but when The Economist makes mention of this in their cover story, some facts are much needed. The many scientists are also of great imagination as well, as with one interviewee who mentions she had a nightmare about discussing CRISPR with an interested Adolf Hitler, shaking how she would approach the use of gene manipulating tech.

Human Nature starts off very dry in the beginning but all that exposition of CRISPR pays off greatly when delving into the quandary of humanity’s reach in a manner based more on known ethics than sci-fi speculation. The idea of what to use this technology for just as dense a subject as trying to decipher it in the first place. The many talking heads speaking both hopefully and cautiously of CRISPR offer up some hope for the future if we can proceed with thoughtfulness about what role we want to play in shaping the world. The gene manipulation of the future will not be so simple as a retooling of every characteristic, but it does have serious societal concerns that will require the tougher discussions of humanity and identity.