Chapter 25, Page 46
The following was taken from a Human Preservation League pamphlet:
A Public Warning from the Human Preservation League
Today, powerful corporations, governments, and biotech advocates promise a new era of “human enhancement” through genetic engineering and gene modification. They speak of eliminating weakness, increasing intelligence, extending lifespan, and creating “better” people.
But history teaches us a dangerous truth. Whenever society begins deciding which humans are superior, suffering follows.
When we redesign humanity, what are we preserving? Humanity has always struggled, adapted, learned, and survived not because we were engineered to perfection. Our flaws, limitations, and diversity are not defects to be erased in a laboratory. They are part of the shared condition that binds us together.
We are the Human Preservation League—a coalition of scientists, ethicists, community leaders, teachers, and ordinary people concerned about the rapid push toward engineered humanity. We believe human genetic enhancement poses profound risks—not only to individual health, but to freedom, equality, and the future of civilization itself.
Humanity, Not Hardware
Supporters of human genetic engineering often present it as compassionate and inevitable. We are told that gene modification can eliminate disease, improve the quality of life, and help future generations. This is the foundation of Class 1 and Class 2 genetic modification.
The promise sounds noble, but the reality may not be. Enhancement does not stop at healing illness. Once society accepts altering human DNA for improvement, the pressure to optimize every trait becomes unavoidable. In time, this would include intelligence, appearance, athletic ability, height, personality, emotional traits, creativity, aggression, and obedience.
The line between healing people and designing people disappears quickly. What begins as medicine can become manufacturing. This is the promise of Class 3 genetic modification.
A New Genetic Class System
Imagine a world where wealthy families can afford genetically enhanced children while others cannot. Enhanced children may gain better cognitive performance, stronger immune systems, longer lifespans, and greater physical ability.
Meanwhile, natural-born humans could become economically and socially disadvantaged. This would not merely create inequality. It would create biological inequality. Social class could become permanently embedded in human DNA.
Would employers prefer engineered applicants? Would insurance companies discriminate against the unmodified? Would schools favor enhanced students? Would governments eventually pressure citizens to comply?
Human value must never be reduced to genetic desirability.
Generation Modification
One of the gravest ethical concerns is simple: future generations cannot consent to genetic alteration. Permanent changes made to embryos affect not only one individual, but every generation that follows. A single error or unintended mutation may spread through family lines indefinitely.
No child should inherit experimental modifications chosen by corporations, political systems, or parental ambition. Children are not products to customize. They are human beings.
The Illusion of “Perfect” Humans
Human genetics are extraordinarily complex. Traits are interconnected in ways science still barely understands. Attempts to “improve” one trait may create unforeseen consequences, including increased risk of mental illness, reduced emotional range, new diseases, infertility, immune disorders, and developmental abnormalities.
Nature is not a machine with interchangeable parts. Even traits we consider undesirable may serve important purposes. Diversity in thinking, temperament, and ability has helped humanity survive crises throughout history. A world engineered toward uniform ideals could become more fragile, not stronger.
Human-Grade Weapons
Class 3 genetic modifications can be used to weaponize humans for warfare. Augmented soldiers with increased tolerance to pain, resilience to harsh environments, and programmed emotional responses—or lack thereof—are only a few examples of how gene manipulation could be exploited for military purposes.
The applications are almost endless and, in most cases, unethical.
Corporations Should Not Own Humanity
Biotechnology companies already patent genetic technologies and profit from human biology.
What happens when engineered traits become intellectual property? Could parts of human genetics become commercially controlled? Could access to enhancement depend entirely on wealth?
The human genome should never become a marketplace. Human beings are not software to upgrade.
What Kind of Society Are We Building?
A culture obsessed with optimization risks losing something essential: acceptance of ordinary humanity. Imagine a future where parents feel guilty for having natural children, where non-modified traits become socially unacceptable, and where imperfections become taboo.
A civilization that cannot tolerate human limitation may ultimately lose their humanity altogether.
We Are Not Anti-Science
We support ethical medicine, responsible research, and treatments that heal suffering without redesigning humanity itself.
But there is a difference between treating disease and engineering the future of the species. Scientific ability does not automatically create moral permission.
Humanity must ask not only, “Can we do this?” but also, “Should we?”
Our Principles
We call for:
1. A Global Ban on Class 3 Genetic Modification
All Class 3 gene enhancements on humans must be remain forbidden under international law.
2. Strict Oversight of Gene Editing Technologies
Independent ethical review—not corporate self-regulation.
3. Protection for Natural Human Rights
No discrimination based on enhancement status.
4. Public Debate Before Permanent Change
The future of humanity must not be decided behind closed laboratory doors.
5. Respect for Human Dignity
Every person has value independent of intelligence, strength, appearance, or engineered traits.
The Future Is Still Ours to Choose
Humanity stands at a crossroads. One path treats people as human, imperfect, and equal. The other risks turning human life into a competitive engineering project driven by profit, power, and social pressure.
We do not oppose progress. We oppose forgetting what it means to be human.
Join The Human Preservation League. Defend human dignity. Protect future generations. Preserve humanity.
Danger Zone One. Story by Midnight. Art by Salaiix.
Seeing as the drug’s not completely out of Madison’s system, her eyes must be turning very pink right about now from all the stimulation Nihil’s giving her.
Nihil is getting quite the view (and soon, likely a taste).
“SHUT UP AND DRINK” indeed
LOL, I didn’t even catch that! That poster placement’s perfect and very fitting XD
OHH, MAN! IT LOOKS LIKE NIHIL’S GOT MADISON IN A POSITION FOR A POWERBOMB! LOOKS LIKE MADISON MIGHT BE IN HOT WATER NOW, FOLKS! GET READY FOR YET ANOTHER BRUTAL BEATDOWN!
Augmented soldiers with reduced tolerance to pain
Did you mean INCREASED tolerance to pain?
And yes, that column is exactly what one would expect out of an anti-progress enforced equality clown. It’s the classic “is there someone you forgot to ask?” joke. If the side effects are worked out, then so long as the client knows the risks, then it’s a private transaction.
We as human beings have always innovated our way to be better than we were the day before. To reach for new heights not by some sort of genetic luck, but by created solutions. We have applied those same techniques to innovating all sorts of manners of ways to ail diseases that assault the body. This would simply be another step towards a better humanity.
Yes, those that initially lack the funds may not be the first in reception of the new modifications, but looking at the arc of human history, even the wealthiest, for whom another marginal unit of spending would be meaningless, have had their lives noticeably improved by invention. For instance, Nathan Rothschild died in 1836 of an ear infection that would be trivial to treat today. Analogously, augmenting the human body may allow human beings to achieve that which was previously unimaginable.
Thanks for spotting that, you’re absolutely right, it should have been “increased”, not “reduced”. Fixed!
Neither one’s going to quit until the other’s KO’d. Both are very tenacious.
Also gotta love how badass Madison is, just wailing on Nihil like that even in her vulnerable/compromised position.
The fact that Madison’s not wearing any panties makes this even better.
I’m a big fan of these write-ups. It’s always interesting to read how they explore topics within the in-comic universe.
I can see Nihil starting the downward motion for the power bomb but finally goes unconscious and Madison ends up pretty much knocked out of commission as well leaving the Doc to call for backup and secure everyone.