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"Ho-Hak’s right ear twitched. His ears were unusual, very large, and with extremely long lower lobes, drawn lower still by small, heavy pendants set in them. He had been a slave, doubtless, and doubtless, judging by the collar, and the large hands and broad back, had served on the galleys, but he had been an unusual slave, a bred exotic, doubtless originally intended by the slave maters for a destiny higher than that of the galley bench.

There are various types of "exotics" bred by Gorean slavers, all of whom are to be distinguished from more normal varieties of bred slaves, such as a Passion Slaves and Draft Slaves. Exotics may be bred for almost any purpose, and some of these purposes, unfortunately, seem to be little more than to produce quaint or unusual specimens. Ho-Hak may well have been one so bred.

"You are an exotic," I said to him.

Ho-Hak’s ears leaned forward toward me, but he did not seem angry. He had brown hair, and brown eyes; the hair, long, was tied behind his head with a string of rence cloth. He wore a sleeveless tunic of rence cloth, like most of the rence growers.

"Yes," said Ho-Hak. "I was bred for a collector."

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ORIGINAL: cariad

i am of the belief that if the Powers that be wanted perfection there would be no war, no famine, no hurricanes, no tornadoes and no floods.

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However, because the Powers that be created each of us individually and with the capability to form our own thoughts, i feel that it is wrong to genetically alter a baby before it is conceived or born.

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to me genetically altering a child goes against everything i believe in.

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ORIGINAL: justinasamerk

However who is it to determine what a "Desirable" trait is. Historically speaking every generation there is a social group out there that sets to erraticate a more "inferior" group, (and for those ignorant to believe..this is the age of *coughs* Terrorism)

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It is scary to think that soon you can create and order your child based on certain characteristics as if they are a specialty item in a fast food restaurant.

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As for the gorean perspective, slaves were animals, and currently we do breed animals and genetically alter them for the desirability, whether its chickens for bigger breasts, or cows for their milk, even farming fish and other type of sea life. We do it now, just not in the name of humans. Eventually it probably will be the norm to farm humans to.

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ORIGINAL: ownedkitten

While I can see the "positives" of it in terms of medical issues and the like, I do not feel that we should "play God."

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As noyeh mentioned, we can use science to help us treat diseases and disorders...but I do not think it should be a way to eradicate them completely.

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There is a natural progression/evolution of the species for a reason, I believe.

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ORIGINAL: Saffleur

The exptics in the books were not done like what we see today. They were done by eugenics. Selective breeding to produce slaves with full lips etc. It was not a genetic modification done while the child is in the womb.

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ORIGINAL: Aswad

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ORIGINAL: Saffleur

The exptics in the books were not done like what we see today. They were done by eugenics. Selective breeding to produce slaves with full lips etc. It was not a genetic modification done while the child is in the womb.

Whether I pick up a gun and shoot someone, or hire someone else to shoot that someone, the net result is the same: the person got shot. The specifics are unimportant with regards to what conceptually happened.

Selective breeding is the same thing as genetic modification, just less specific, and more prone to cause suffering, as one of the most effective methods of strengthening desireable traits, as well as eliminating undesireable ones, is inbreeding. The observation that there will be a greater tendency for people to have "unfit" offspring led to the banning of inbreeding in most human cultures; however, what inbreeding really does, is to quickly weed out those traits that are undesired, as they accumulate quickly to the point where unviable lines die out, and strengthen those traits that are desireable, as those accumulate just as quickly.

The only difference is that genetic modification is, IIRC, currently done with an already fertilized egg, which opens the door to questions that science doesn't address (i.e. religious concerns). While it is harder to modify the ovum and sperm seperately, it can be done, and this would achieve a conceptually identical procedure to selective breeding.

And selective breeding goes on every day.

Some people get to breed more than others, and some traits are more likely to get you into a situation where you can produce offspring than other traits.

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ORIGINAL: ehmCB

we are born to do one thing in this life and that is to die but what we do between being born and dying is what life is all about.