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For my final project, I will be completing the creative project, writing a short story in the
genre of Littrature du si in the style of Bernard Werber. Recently, I read an article discussing
the possibility of growing babies with selective genes, lending a higher likelihood for certain
traits (hair color, height, even intelligence), and it is on this idea that I will be basing my story. I
will be setting my story in the future (I am not yet certain what year), in a time when this practice
is common, and the ramifications are large. Parents are chosen by the government to donate
their DNA; government officials then go through a selection of genes, creating the perfect
child. All children are born alike, thus ending inequality in the world. However, the richer
classes can afford to buy better traits (traits that are, scientifically, more difficult to make in
a child), and so the class divides become very easily seen in the physical and intellectual make-
up of people. Since the genetic manipulation only increases a likelihood of those traits being
presented, any child not born within the guidelines is rejected (I am unsure whether this rejection
will result in a physical rejection, sending the child to a separate community due to their differing
appearance and lack of uniformity, or more soft social rejections within the larger community).
Either way, their future prospects are lessened by this rejection; there are laws about who they
can marry, what jobs they can hold, where they can live, etc. The story will highlight presumed
equality, hidden inequalities, the power of corruption and explanations for why these corruptions
are acceptable (the wealthy will have justifications as to why their children are allowed to have
the better traits).
My protagonist will likely be a young female who meets and/or is related to one of the
genetic failures. She will start off believing in the system, believing that the genetic failures are
truly failed humans that cannot function properly in society, until she meets the genetic failure
that becomes her friend. She will go through a transformational process where she realizes that
the failed humans are, in fact, just as good as the genetically perfect humans, despite (and
because of) their differences. She tries to spread awareness of this and fight the current system of
genetic preference. I am not sure, yet, what the ending of the story will be.