Calypso in Interstellar Space by D G Hervey

Author:D G Hervey [Hervey, D G]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8 - To Legislate or Not

Ping, a Hidden Assemblyman and gymnast, returned to her quarters after a meeting of the Assembly, the lawmaking branch of Calypso. During the session, the Speaker of the Assembly, Kimiko, pushed for action on several issues she viewed as important. Ping understood that Kimiko wanted new laws passed before her term as Speaker ended. Ping, desiring to represent the views of her constituency and wanting to get a broader perspective of how folks felt, thought she should talk these issues over with some of her podmates, women she respected.

When Ping entered her pod, she found Olfan and Akna relaxing in the common room after their work day was over. With no children about, Ping seized this rare opportunity to discuss Kimiko’s issues with them.

Jumping right into the subject on her mind, Ping announced, “This session of the Assembly is nearing its end. At today’s meeting, Kimiko pushed for some bills to be passed while she is still Speaker. Do you mind talking with me about them?”

Olfan looked up and replied, “Okay, shoot.”

Ping began, “The first one concerns the unofficial restrictions that are being placed which control when a donor’s sperm can be used after it has resulted in a daughter on Calypso. I don’t see how we can continue with these prohibitions for long. The doctors need uniform, official guidelines to follow.”

“I think the Assembly should take into account the number of girls who will be born in the next generations,” replied Olfan. “That makes it obvious that relaxing the present strictures is mandatory. With over twenty thousand sperm donors to our sperm bank, there are plenty of guys from whom we can choose for now. The seven hundred of us bearing daughters in this generation will produce on average about seven daughters. So in total, we will have almost five thousand daughters in Calypso’s first space-born generation. If the birthrate continues for another generation, the population of fertile women will reach about thirty-five thousand. That number exceeds the twenty some thousand donors who supplied our sperm bank. Clearly any law prohibiting a second use of a donor’s sperm will have to be applicable to only the seven hundred of us in this first child-bearing generation. There simply are not sufficient numbers of donors to restrict our daughters’ choices the way ours are being limited.”

“You are right,” agreed Akna. “Furthermore, consider this: each daughter of a given donor will have only half of that man’s nuclear genes. Or to put it another way, until a donor has a second daughter, only half of his nuclear genes will be in Calypso’s continuing gene pool. I think it is reasonable to preclude a woman from having two daughters by the same donor when there are ample men from whom she can choose. But I have no problem with allowing one of our daughters to select a donor who someone else has used. I see no reason to restrict a man’s sperm from being used by a second woman in the next generation.

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