24 minutes after I was born, the first infant died. Before I was eight hours old there were thirteen more. Panic spread, and my routine surgery was delayed. After 26 more deaths, it was suspended indefinitely. Something had gone terribly wrong, and parents everywhere where holding their breath.
My mother and father were not afraid of technology. They were both scientists and knew the difference between a statistical aberration and a deep trend. Somehow, however, the unknown hit them hard. My mother was always susceptible to depression, and her post-partum state of mind must have been especially lacking. Not only that, but back in the '70s there was a movement proposing that enhancement was an evil that should not be imposed upon children. Demonstrably wrong, the ethos had nonetheless taken root in my parents. A week of indecision was all it took. I was Lost.
The deaths were caused by septic shock due to flaws in the implant kits from one of the e2 replication programs. Despite infant mortality on a scale unknown since the first neo-natal enhancement -- 682 babies worldwide in just a couple of days -- the system of review found the problem and corrected it very quickly. Less than a week after the first death was reported a comprehensive report was issued and the ban lifted. e2 enhancement surgery resumed and millions of my cohorts started normal lives like everyone else.
But not me. Too many children had died for my parents to let the matter go so easily. I was to be unenhanced, they decided, and live my life as a natural human. They thought it was the rational, ethical decision, and they justified it to me many times over my life. Right or wrong, it was a decision shared by thousands -- we of the Lost Generation.
I've often wondered what my life would have been like if I'd been enhanced as a baby. Simply put, I'd be someone else. It's not a matter of different capabilities, it's a matter of a different self. It's not possible to separate the mind from the body, as many might like to think. If my body were e2 -- which I would have been if I'd been born only hours sooner -- "I" would not exist.
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