Trekverse Crossbreeding
A subject that has driven me a little nuts for a long time is the cross-species breeding in Star Trek.
it drives me a little nuts for a couple reasons.
The first reason is: cross-species reproduction isn't easy, automatic, or a matter of two people gettin' it on. In fact, it isn't even possible. Different species cannot make babies together without a lot of serious, detailed, and ongoing bioengineering intervention. (Diane Duane is, I think, the only Trek novel writer who actually went into some detail about this, talking about the bioengineering of Spock). It therefore follows that there can't be any unplanned, accidental, surprise pregnancies. Uhura cannot miss a period and go OMG! I'm preggers! What'll we do! (in fact, I can't see any circumstance in which Uhura gets pregnant at all, since she's on active duty a few hundred light years out in deep space on a ship devoted to exploration and military patrol - but that's another issue). In fact, since - so far as we know now - hybrids tend to be sterile, Uhura can't get pregnant at all by Spock, even if they want to, even if they plan to... unless, of course, the problem of "mulism" has also been resolved by the 22nd or 23rd Century.
The other reason is, people who can interbreed with other species at the seeming drop of a hat would not also, still, go around thinking in terms of alien or 'other,' anymore than we, here, today still think of other ethnicities or races as the alien 'other.' (I'm very well aware there are still bigots who do in fact think that way. But I refuse to let them define or frame this issue.) In other words, the ease and mundanity of cross-species offspring argues a concomitant ease and mundanity of cross-species contact, familiarity, and acceptance.
So in order for there to be half-Vulcans, half-Betazeds, half-Romulans, half-Klingons, and half-every-damn-species-in-the-galaxy, a few things have to be true:
1. Everyone's genome has been mapped - every species, and every individual. Genetic mapping has to be as routine as annual checkups - or at least as routinely available as, say, physical therapy.
2. All genomes can be mixed and matched - bioengineered, in other words - at reasonable cost.
3. OB/GYN for mixed-species pregnancies is also routine, reasonable, and readily available.
4. Ongoing medical care specializing in hybrids has also got to be, if not as routine and available as the OB/GYN, then pretty nearly so. Geriatrics, internal medicine, neurology... medical practitioners specializing in hybrid practice has got to be one hell of a growth industry in Starfleet.
4A. This includes the issue mentioned above: hybrid bioengineering has solved the mule problem, and hybrids are as fertile as they want to be.
5. Bigotry is, if not dead, then about as socially acceptable as parent-child incest - at least, in such cosmopolitan settings as Starfleet, the Federation, and most if not all of its member planets. Why? Because if Nos. 1-3 are true, then hybridization has to have been around for a really long time, has to be ubiquitous and has to have been that way for a while - otherwise, the capacity for just-about-anyone to have a cross-species baby would simply not exist.
I want to make it plain, if by any chance it isn't already so, that I LOVE hybrids; approve and applaud the whole idea, with so much fervor that one of my dream jobs would in fact be one of those hybrid-specialist medical practitioners mentioned in No. 4. I can think of few more interesting or rewarding tasks than seeing a hybrid's life processes happen, than tailoring a medical history and medical care unique to that individual. It would be fascinating; it would be awe-inspiring... and it would, glory be, finally put speciesism (and racism, sexism, and all the other bigoted "isms" behind us)
it drives me a little nuts for a couple reasons.
The first reason is: cross-species reproduction isn't easy, automatic, or a matter of two people gettin' it on. In fact, it isn't even possible. Different species cannot make babies together without a lot of serious, detailed, and ongoing bioengineering intervention. (Diane Duane is, I think, the only Trek novel writer who actually went into some detail about this, talking about the bioengineering of Spock). It therefore follows that there can't be any unplanned, accidental, surprise pregnancies. Uhura cannot miss a period and go OMG! I'm preggers! What'll we do! (in fact, I can't see any circumstance in which Uhura gets pregnant at all, since she's on active duty a few hundred light years out in deep space on a ship devoted to exploration and military patrol - but that's another issue). In fact, since - so far as we know now - hybrids tend to be sterile, Uhura can't get pregnant at all by Spock, even if they want to, even if they plan to... unless, of course, the problem of "mulism" has also been resolved by the 22nd or 23rd Century.
The other reason is, people who can interbreed with other species at the seeming drop of a hat would not also, still, go around thinking in terms of alien or 'other,' anymore than we, here, today still think of other ethnicities or races as the alien 'other.' (I'm very well aware there are still bigots who do in fact think that way. But I refuse to let them define or frame this issue.) In other words, the ease and mundanity of cross-species offspring argues a concomitant ease and mundanity of cross-species contact, familiarity, and acceptance.
So in order for there to be half-Vulcans, half-Betazeds, half-Romulans, half-Klingons, and half-every-damn-species-in-the-galaxy, a few things have to be true:
1. Everyone's genome has been mapped - every species, and every individual. Genetic mapping has to be as routine as annual checkups - or at least as routinely available as, say, physical therapy.
2. All genomes can be mixed and matched - bioengineered, in other words - at reasonable cost.
3. OB/GYN for mixed-species pregnancies is also routine, reasonable, and readily available.
4. Ongoing medical care specializing in hybrids has also got to be, if not as routine and available as the OB/GYN, then pretty nearly so. Geriatrics, internal medicine, neurology... medical practitioners specializing in hybrid practice has got to be one hell of a growth industry in Starfleet.
4A. This includes the issue mentioned above: hybrid bioengineering has solved the mule problem, and hybrids are as fertile as they want to be.
5. Bigotry is, if not dead, then about as socially acceptable as parent-child incest - at least, in such cosmopolitan settings as Starfleet, the Federation, and most if not all of its member planets. Why? Because if Nos. 1-3 are true, then hybridization has to have been around for a really long time, has to be ubiquitous and has to have been that way for a while - otherwise, the capacity for just-about-anyone to have a cross-species baby would simply not exist.
I want to make it plain, if by any chance it isn't already so, that I LOVE hybrids; approve and applaud the whole idea, with so much fervor that one of my dream jobs would in fact be one of those hybrid-specialist medical practitioners mentioned in No. 4. I can think of few more interesting or rewarding tasks than seeing a hybrid's life processes happen, than tailoring a medical history and medical care unique to that individual. It would be fascinating; it would be awe-inspiring... and it would, glory be, finally put speciesism (and racism, sexism, and all the other bigoted "isms" behind us)