I’m a secondary human, or at least that’s what it says on my ID. Right there, below many name, but people usually already know by just looking at me. It is obvious by my facial features. I’m not very pretty. Not ugly either, but there is much that could have been improved.
My parents didn’t. They just didn’t have the money for it. I don’t hold it against them, they tried everything in their power to make it up to me. It wasn’t their fault that a secondary would never be promoted to one of the high paying jobs. But at least I have a job.
At least I wasn’t a tertiary human.
Tertiaries are those who don’t only lack the beautiful outside that is the social standard by now. They also have some genetic disorder which they could potentially pass on to their children. If they’re rich enough, it isn’t much of a problem. If they pay for their child’s genome to be completely cleaned of any defects, they are allowed to procreate.
But most of the tertiaries come from poor families. That’s why they have the disease in the first place. And many of the badly disabled can’t work, so they don’t even have the chance to increase their wealth. To prevent more children from having disabilities, those tertiaries are not allowed to reproduce.
But that had only been the first law they passed. Year after year, the situation got worse. By now, tertiaries were sterilized as soon as they entered puberty if their parents couldn’t prove that they had enough money to treat potential grandchildren.
I heard rumors that this wasn’t everything. Apparently, many tertiaries were taken from their homes, late at night, and brought to some facility. Nobody heard of them again. I can only imagine what happens to them there. You might think death is the worst thing that could happen to you, but since animal testing was outlawed, there is a constant need of voluntary test subjects.
I highly doubt that they are all willing.
But I shouldn’t think things like this. Who knows what comes next? Maybe they’ll learn to read our minds. Maybe some primaries already have those abilities. I don’t really know what possibilities are there when it comes to gene editing.
When they discovered the CRISPR/Cas9 method about 50 years ago, excitement had been the main reaction throughout the biological and medical community. It had enabled them to make precise, targeted changes to living cells. Only a few years later, a genetic heart defect was repaired in a human embryo.
Things had accelerated from there.
More and more defects were proven to be repairable, the pressure to allow the usage of CRISPR on embryos intended for an actual pregnancy rose. At the same time, concerns about the ethical usage became louder and louder.
If there is a way to tamper with the DNA of a child before it’s even considered an embryo, why stop at pathogenic mutations? Why not adjust hair color, eye color, height, intelligence and other features?
The discussions went on and on and on … until one country just said fuck it and allowed it. And it was a success. Healthy, beautiful and intelligent babies were born en masse. The death rates for newborns and young children plummeted. And the other countries? They suddenly felt the need to keep up and allowed the procedures too.
It only took a single generation to transform humanity. Not all of it, of course. But those parts that mattered. Those that had money. Everyone else was left behind, as usual.
For years, I had just accepted this as fact, but no longer.
I am a secondary human, it says so on my ID, right there, below my name. But that doesn’t make me any less valuable.
And today, I join the resistance.
Sources:
CRISPR/Cas9 and Targeted Genome Editing
Correction of a pathogenic gene mutation in human embryos
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The piece you have written is very disturbing, especially because it may become all too real in the not too distant future. I personally believe that God gave us science to be used for the good of mankind. Unfortunately, the egocentricity of humanity means that science can be, and is used for the good of one's own self and not for mankind as such. This may very well lead to further chaos and class separation than what is already rife in this world. I pray that wisdom triumphs in the end. Thank you, @suesa, you always make me think.
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The part that really f*cked my mind was when I checked your Sources. I didn't think humanity was thisclose to that kind of science. Here I was getting upset about the bugs consuming the flowers of our budding vegetables in our wee little farm when the world is already looking into adjusting the outcome of an embryo. I can now conclude I've been living under a rock.
PS: I've read part 2, 3, and 4. Now who's publishing this book and when?!
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Book publishing is hell (I actually got 2 fantasy youth novels out there), I think I'll stick to steemit.
Glad you enjoyed the story! :D
And yes, it can be a bit creepy to see how far humanity has come.
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Love this, upvoted, resteemed and followed, now on to part 2!
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At first I was very scared, as I read this post, for one reason to prevent infectious diseases by prohibiting reproduction. That's what I fear. Because the reproduction of the main functions to preserve the ummah.
But it turns out the disease you mentioned in this post can be cured, even if not perfect. Because this is a separation of the embryo.
Thank you @suesa
Interesting post
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I am not sure if you understood the story at all
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Definitely looking forward to Part 2.
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I am just me .
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You are a student who master biology, the discussion today is very interesting in my opinion, most malnutrition approached poor families, and very in pity if there are rich people who do not want to care about it. @suesa
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Good story anda good writing :
I’m a secondary human, or at least that’s what it says on my ID. Right there, below many name, but people usually already know by just looking at me. It is obvious by my facial features. I’m not very pretty. Not ugly either, but there is much that could have been improved
Regard
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Good fiction, next to 2nd part
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Nice read
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Disorders of the human reproductive system can affect both men and women. But there are some diseases that only affect men or women. This nice and interesting post will add to the shared experience thanks for sharing
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Another brilliant articles. I am impressed more and more, day by day. There are so many interesting moments starting to inspire me. Very exciting for me. I wish you the best of luck, also wait for an interesting thought from you! I wait for new articles!
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like post
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Good post..
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Well written! Thanks for sharing!
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Los humanos perfecto son una utopia
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Wow it's crazy how much that thumbnail picture can tell.. Insane :D
Great post. I can see you put in the effort! I gave you a follow :) Talk soon.
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perfect humans...fiction
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Duh 😅
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it's getting warm
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The ultimate perfection is the creation of imperfection itself giving birth to the unknown factor ^^
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didn't some of the human tried such thing?? the eugenetics
but the at the same time we are just doing this slowly, natural selections made some genes less likely to get pass on, only with some technologies, some rich people had better chance to avoid some diseases.
Told you people with more vitamin M got better survival chances, lol
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I really like the writing, the outcome and what it entails. In a secondary human, or at least that's what it says on my ID. Right there, underneath many name.
Greetings from Venezuela
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A lot of people think this whole DNA/designer babies is some kind of halcyon or that the science of DNA and diagnosis is infallible, but I have first-hand proof that it isn't so. My wife's friend was pregnant and the baby was diagnosed with down syndrome by DNA. The doctor said it was 100% accurate and that they should prepare for the worst and blah blah blah. Of course the mom was distraught and even depressed for the whole pregnancy. Turns out the baby was NOT down-syndrome. The baby was completely normal, going to regular school, and learning karate. Why can't people just leave things alone?
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Yes, sometimes it turns out fine, sometimes the baby has a heart defect that will kill it at the age of three. I think it's understandable that parents want to prevent a horrible disease from happening to their child.
The whole topic is very difficult, as it's something completely new, there is nothing we can really compare it to. And because of this, we don't know the possible consequences.
As with every scientific progression, this can bring great results - or horrible ones. Who knows.
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A really scary story, because most of it is already reality and the rest can be reality one day.
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I follow your opinion because it involves the lives of millions of babies even this has happened let alone simple parent's life he is aware of dangerous diseases in children but he can not prevent it because it does not have a large cost.
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Good one! Waiting for more.
Upvote and follow :)
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nice posting. i support you. i also resist that
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That's the thing about designer babies. Or biological immortality. Or having a pet AI. It rocks when you're the only one who does it -- nooooooot so much when everyone else wants to hop on the ride.
Heheheheh.
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Your intelligence is on primary level for sure. That's the most important thing @suesa!
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Upvoted. I'm going to resteem this now :)
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