Unexpected Ramifications...

[beccastareyes]

Of all things, this was inspired by a MPreg rant on fanficrants...

One series of Lois McMaster Bujold's books is set in a future space-opera setting. One of the technological advances is the 'uterine replicator', a device that mimics the human uterus, allowing babies to be born without anyone having to be pregnant. And I started thinking about how many different ways this shows up in the series. So I made a list.


This is roughly in chronological order...

1. Uterine replicators are used for various human genetic engineering projects when one doesn't want to deal with the legal and biological ramifications of a surrogate mother -- the quaddies, a race of four-armed/no-legged humans created to be the perfect microgravity construction crew -- being an example, with an entire book devoted to them winning their freedom in a society that didn't have the safeguards needed for uterine-replicator-birthed genetically modified humans. We also meet Sergeant Taura later -- Taura being the only surviving attempt to engineer a super-soldier -- and Terrence, an attempt to engineer a telepath.
   
2. A mention that Beta Colony parents have debates on which is better parenting -- a body-birth or using a replicator, much the same way that modern parents debating things like nursing.
   
3. After a failed invasion of Escobar by Barrayar, in which female Escobarian POWs were raped, any embryos conceived on the POWs were sent home with the invaders. The Escobarians didn't want to deal with something that wasn't their problem*, and it also suggests that women who wanted to terminate a pregnancy could do it while keeping the embryo alive. One of the characters in the later books was one of these babies
   * Though one wonders about the ethics of sending them there -- at least in the series, things turn out well, since the general reason for the war crimes was that 'the Crown Prince was a sociopath, and thank God he died before his old man the Emperor did'.
   
4. The Regent of Barrayar and his pregnant wife, Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan, are poisoned. The antidote to the poison causes lethal birth defects. Cordelia insists that her child be removed, put in a replicator, and attempts to counteract the antidote are made. Little Miles lives... and becomes the protagonist of the rest of the books.
   
5. The Cetagandians are interested in self-genetic-engineering -- and genetic engineering everything else, for that matter Their ruling class is extensively modified and children are conceived on their capital planet via an organization of high-ranked Cetagandian women, with the parents often never ever having even met, with a yearly procession of the Planetary Governor's consort of bringing the unborn children from the capital to the colony planet. Changes are tested out in a set of neuter palace servants created by the upper class, and modifications are allowed to slowly trickle down to the lower nobility. This creates at least two plots -- one in stealing the key with the data storage of every upper-class Cetagandian's genetic code, and one with the annual shipment of babies to one colony being stolen with an attempt to frame a foreign power. (Don't piss off genetic engineers... they have many nasty surprises for you.)
   
6. The Athosians are a male-only society that can only exist due to uterine replicators and the ability to keep ovarian tissue cultures alive for long periods outside of women. They do run into problems when the tissue samples start dying, though.
   
7. It's not just genetic-engineered projects -- you can also clone things for shady purposes. The planet of Jackson's Whole has a whole pocket industry in cloning rich, amoral businesspeople and then doing brain transplants when the clone is grown. Komarran separatists also make a clone of Miles Vorkosigan, in an attempt to both kill Aral, the leader of a Barrayaran force that put a Komarran rebellion down, and generally disrupt Barrayaran politics.
   
8. It's mentioned that replicator babies can be easily checked for genetic problems and those can be fixed before the kid is even born. Handy if they run in your family.
   
9. A Barrayaran lord opens a replicator clinic in his home territory. Since sex-selection technology and lagging equal rights for women meant that there were far more men than women in younger generations, he gets the brilliant idea to use the extra eggs and his own sperm to create a crowd of young women to get people to come live in his territory. This is not technically illegal... until he's caught at it, that is.
   

I'm probably missing things as well. Point is, it's amazing how many plots you can get from something like this.

How this goes with the MPreg rant on FanficRants is that all of these stem from an advance in medical technology that changes reproduction, which changes family structure. It also interacts with other technology to change things further. Having a magical or technological ability to both impregnate men and allow male tissue to produce egg cells would do more than just ensure that characters X and Y can have a baby that is biologically both theirs.