Phil Pugliese wrote:
> IMO. after all the millenia & with a TL so much higher,
> all this has become as moot as a paleolithic man arguing
> that it'll be too difficult to artificially conceive at TL9.

No.
Biology has limits and constants, like physics.
The typical Traveller TL hasn't got to the stage where you can redefine
natural constants like pi.

Genomes are unstable.
For example, human nuclear DNA accumulates 1-2 new mutations with each
generation - about one mutation every 30 million base pairs when gametes are
made.

Mitochondrial DNA has 1000 times the mutation rate, almost the same as RNA
viruses (but the virus generation time is a lot shorter).

Most clinical genetic syndromes causing disability affect multiple sites in
different ways. The complexity is only now being realised with the advent of
modern sequencing techniques.

Then there's epigenetic modifications - methylation and other additions to
DNA bases which affect function, and sporadic mutations also caused by
post-natal environmental exposures. These are the basis of a wide range of
conditions, most notably cancers.

There's no reason to believe alien life is going to be any less complex.

So from time to time someone is going to be infertile or have a disastrous
genome, metabolic profile, or response to fertility treatments that
precludes their use regardless of tech level.

There's always adoption or cloning.

Rob O'Connor