Mongoose 2300AD: DNAM issues

[McPerth]

In general, I don't like the idea of so much genetically altered humans (and less so generalized) as MgT 2300AD depicts, but that's a matter of personal tastes, not a rules flaw.

Even so, there are some side effects that I'm not sure have been weighted enough when using them:

Gender reassignment:

I see this as one of the most difficult genetic manipulations on an adult, as we're talking her about replacing a full cromosome (either an Y to X or vice-versa), not just some genes. This aside, the major anatomic changes it means would probably need major surgery, aside from any genetic/cromosomic changes (so making difficult to reverse them and, IMHO, the gender hoping told about in page 127 quite risky at least...)

According to page 123, major modifications are only interfertile with someone who has received the same modification. When we try to apply this to gender reassignment we find some curious results:

1. They are infertile, as, being only interfertile with someone who received the same modification would mean being only interfertile with people of the same (modified) gender...
2. Alternatively, they could interbreed with someone having undergone gender reassignement (on the opposite way), so leading us to a former male begetting a child from a former female :CoW:...
3. Alternatively, we could assume that being a full cromosomic change with no true genetic changes (no alien genes to a human genoma being introduced), this is an exception to the non-interfertile rules.

See that in the latter case (being freely interfertile with "normal" humans), if we apply the these changes are permanent and are passed along to successive generations (also in page 123) would mean that all chidren would be the same gender of the modified parent, while if we try to apply this sentence to option 2 (interbreading among people haveing undergone gender reassignment on oppopite ways) this result could be even more funny...

Thoughts?

 

[epicenter00]

I'd hazard that by the letter of the rules, it creates the dilemmas you've listed. By the intent of the rules, I'd say that sex reassignment doesn't actually apply to those the blurb on p123 at all. You're either male or female.

And yeah, I'm pretty iffy on the whole sex change occurring over three months thing. No, I take that back, I'm really iffy. We're talking about the creation of entire new organs, the disappearance of others, and other physiological changes. It is metamorphosis, something a grade school teacher of mine once described (in the case of a butterfly) "it's like a truck turning into an airplane while it's still driving." However, in the case of these DNAMs, there doesn't appear to be then need for a cocoon for the body to reduce itself into a mass of cells and so on to rebuild itself.

I'm curious, particularly in an adult human (or even before then) how such a sex change deals with things like secondary sexual characteristics and basic sexual dimorphism in humans. A woman turning into a man ... okay sure, body hair and muscle mass and so on redistribute. However, do her hands actually grow larger? Or even more disturbing, her hips shrink and change configuration? What happens to her womb? Does she slowly grow male reproductive organs? What about her (now his) "plumbing"?

This all seems impossible just from changing someone's DNA. You'd need to restart the growth cycle in a human being in the case of an adult, which certainly isn't impossible, but I'm less sure if such changes would really just occur painlessly over three months in the case of sex reassignment. It would seem that there'd be need for at least some periodic visits for surgical assistance and probably the grafting and installation of various organs and components of the new sex and removal of the old (assuming the person doesn't want to straddle some "third sex" situation).

However, this (to me) opens an entirely different can can of worms:

If you can pretty freely restart the growth cycle of a human being and make sweeping physical changes like "breedable" sex reassignment, then the Anagathics on p129 wouldn't necessarily be an expensive treatment only available to the very rich. Reversing or "reconditioning" the human body is pretty much part and parcel to halting or reversing the aging process. If they can rewrite chromosomes and generate completely new disease-free tissue often enough for some people to bounce back and forth between sexes at leisure, they've pretty much conquered aging. In fact, since you're pretty much just resetting various parts of the genes and "restarting the engine" I'd think it'd actually be cheaper than pretty much any of the other "major" DNAMs.