Re: How to achieve childlessness in a future society

<sionevar@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

A part of my story hinges on a male character being unable to father
children, but not being aware of this fact until he actually tries to
do so. The big problem I need to overcome is how to account for this
in an advanced society where sophisticated medical technology is
widely available.


I'm trying to think of a medical problem (teratogenic/mutagenic/
iatrogenic) that could not theoretically be fixed by cellular
regeneration, tissue cloning, gene therapy or something similar.

Does he have to be infertile with everyone, or just with one partner in
particular? Because he might have some recessive genes that could
combine badly with his partner's recessive genes and he doesn't want to
risk screwing up his future heir. Or genes that do combine badly with
hers so that she miscarries; early enough and she mightn't even know
she'd been pregnant, so they might just think they're unlucky for a
while, and even when they realise something's up I think it'd be
plausible for it to take the medical staff a while to figure out exactly
which genes are causing the problems and how to fix them.

I don't know how to make him permanently infertile if cloning and gene
therapy etc are all on the table, but I bet you could drag it out long
enough to complete the book's plot.

Zeborah
--
Gravity is no joke.
http://www.geocities.com/zeborahnz/
rasfc FAQ: http://www.lshelby.com/rasfcFAQ.html
.

Relevant Pages

  • A new topic.
    ... I asked a question about recessive genes. ... eyes" are the product of "recessive genes". ... have a child, why is it that the characteristics of the ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: When does a Mutt become a Purebred?
    ... >> For two parents with good hips to produce offspring with bad hips ... >> would require the interaction of recessive genes, ... >> of genes from his parents. ...
    (rec.pets.dogs.behavior)
  • Re: Did anyone else notice (Of course they did)
    ... Even after generations of inbreeding, ... :> family who probably had superior genes. ... :> Inbreeding tends to allow recessive genes to become active. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: Hamiltons rule
    ... Catherine Woodgold wrote:- ... >>> gain per altruistic action is going down, ... are the latter then the 100% of individuals with "altruistic" genes are at ... > almost as long as recessive genes for non-altruism, ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
Loading