Keeping every human’s genotype and epigenotype on record at birth had been the law for hundreds of years, this was not only as an aid to keeping them on the straight and narrow, but as basic medical records. The law allowed health remedies only, strictly forbidding the use of genetics for cosmetic and psychological modifications, especially intelligence. The often cited case was the potential disaster of tempting people to treat their children as fashion accessories; the planet Frontier, half way round the Sagittarius arm let parents modify their offspring, only to find that too many of the next generation would have been blue eyed blonde males. Controlling gene expression through epigenetics was permitted but monitored. This moderated the effects of adverse environmental factors that caused many of society’s usual problems. People discovered that even in the twenty fifth century it was better to leave an appropriate share of genetic expression to evolution. Adding to these challenges was another never ending argument regarding choice.
