Caste Law

Caste Law (sometimes known as anti-caste law) is the legal code that regulates genetic engineering and the creation of new species, especially human species. It a complex field complicated by copyrighted genomes and decades of unregulated practice.

Overview

Caste law is complicated, and whole legal firms are dedicated to it, but it can be summarized thusly:

• Principle of Independence: All new human variants are to be independently viable, that is, not dependent on factors that cannot be influenced by themselves. This is to prevent humans that can be coerced with specific chemicals or signals.
• Principle of Individuality: New human variants cannot be handicapped intellectually or emotionally, and must be allowed the same rich inner experience that normal humans are. This is to prevent the creation of humans that are inclined to obedience, or incapable of independent thought.
• Principle of Organic Sourcing: New human variants are not to contain novel DNA, that is, DNA that is "written" from scratch. All DNA modification must be spliced in from existing organic sources.
• Principle of Compatibility: New human variants must be able to have fertile offspring with Junya humans. This is to prevent the creation of new species of the genus Homo.
• Principle of Diversity: As far as possible, all genetic modification is to model natural sexual reproduction as closely as possible. This is to maintain high levels of genetic diversity, and prevent the extinction of certain phenotypes. This makes it illegal to intentionally give your children elf ears, for instance, or to remove fused lobes from the population.

Divergents

Variants that violate one of the five principles of caste law are known as divergents.

Enforcement

The enforcement of Caste Law is current the task of the hated Caste Compliance Division of the Federation. Since the CCD reform of 2087  , Compliance Officers must treat divergents humanely whenever possible, and it is standard practice to take divergents to seclusion facilities to live out the rest of their natural lives. In practice, the CCD has broad jurisdiction to make "summary judgement", which means destroying divergent DNA with whatever means at their disposal.
Determining whether a particular individual is divergent is the task of the Caste Analysis Section of the CCD. A blood or skin sample is usually all that is required for the CAS to make a determination.

History

The first caste laws were written directly as a response to fears that corporate entities would make a "slave caste" of humans. Over centuries, caste law has weakened or strengthened depending on how fearful the public is of divergent human strains. The official stance of the Federation is that, even in the case where a divergent has moral independence of thought, it is still necessary to control them to protect the genetic integrity of the human race.
In the 25th century, Caste Law began to be misused   to persecute those politically disloyal to the Federation.
Since the start of the Federation Civil War, Caste Law is enforced only in regions controlled by the Terran Dictate. The Terran Dictate has given the CCD broad power to preserve genetic integrity, without the checks and balances that kept them contained.