Why do we propound this radical view?

Because it is human nature to pursue a course that involves the least amount of pain and effort. (Just compare today's soft society with the rigors of pre-industrial life.) The catalyst will be biotechnology's ability to concoct the artificial milieu that can nurture a human stem-like cell to term — successfully replacing the rich and protecting environment of the uterus. Once the need for a woman's body to produce another human being is totally eliminated, inconvenient and painful pregnancies will be history.

G-twin "initiation" involves nothing more than agreeing to some legal guidelines, providing the funding to establish the new human being, and choosing a "genetic progenitor" to supply the sample DNA for cloning — whether it is the initiator herself (or himself!) or another person.

It's considered a great honor to be chosen a genetic progenitor, or "GP" of a g-twin. This became popular at about 2035, when the entire in vivo human developmental process was duplicated in the lab. Unforeseen was the sale of genetic source material by celebrities and others of stature to fanatical admirers seeking bragging rights as well as g-twin ownership.

Both^{RealityCheck!} men and women have the option to singularly produce offspring in this way, or to choose the "old fashioned" method of jointly having a child through sexual means. But because of the convenience and safety of laboratory gestation with either option — traditional female pregnancy, carrying to term and labor all but disappeared.

MARGULIES © 2003 The Record New Jersey. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Regardless of whether g-twinning or mating is chosen, a semelparous policy is enforced limiting each individual to producing just one child to not increase stress on the environment, and to not add to the problems of global population and unemployment.

An unintended consequence of g-twinning replacing procreation is the phasing out of evolution by chance. The haphazard mixing of genes becomes "extinct." The reuse of the same genes over and over to produce the same individuals eventually weakens a species. Thus the scientific axiom for advanced species, "evolve or die out," becomes a distinct concern to some. For Phrenicea's proponents however, it is affirmation that the ultimate goal of human evolution is... Phrenicea!