Humane Choice

Humane Choice was the 'vaccine' invented by Dr Pradip Shankar in 2007. The objective of the vaccine was to ensure that men who take it have only sons. Initially this effect was obtained, but the male children were hanyos or Broken Pots. The virus also mutated into a flulike form called globetrotter flu causing a low grade fever over several months and then subsiding. Recovered individuals have hanyo/Broken Pot children because of a change in the function of the Y chromosome. In the case of the Broken Pots, it fails to switch on at all, allowng genetic males to develop as females. In the case of the hanyos, it directs human development down a parallel but slightly different male pathway, producing not-quite-human males, ie hanyos.

Invention
Dr Pradip Shankar was a brilliant student of the Chandigarh Medical College, graduating in the year 2004. That same year he married his classmate, Priya Bishnoi, and set up the Shankar clinic with his dowry money. At a wedding shortly afterwards, he met the powerful real estate speculator Himmat Singh, who was impressed with the young docter and put his newly pregnant wife in Shankar's care. This opened many doors for the young couple, but one day in Mrs Singh's second trimester Shnkar happened to let slit during an ultrasound that he couldn't see the genitalia and it might be a girl. Mrs Singh panicked and begged him to induce abortion. He refused, saying that sex selection by abortion was illegal and he would not do it. She then had an abortion with another doctor without telling her husband, but her husband found out and moroover discovered that the child had actually been male. Himmat singh descended on Shankar's clinic, wrecking ewquipment and trheatening everyone, in psite of Shankar's protestations that he was blameless. Under dire threats from Singh, Shankar stopped practicing, although his wife was allowed to continue. This galled Shankar.

Shankar's speicality in med school had been genetics, and now he returned to his researches with a vengeance. He began working with a class of viruses called dependoviruses, retro viruses which could not reproduce without the presence of other viruses. He decided ot use one of these to 'supercharge' the Y-bearing sperm, causing them to vastly outdistance the heavier X-bearing sperm. In this his in vitro experiments were successful. now he had to try this out in vivo.

Distribution
Shankar now faced a problem: he had no patients, whether male or female. However, his wife, a pediatrician, had a thriving practice. Here he saw the women whose hearts had been broken again and again till they had had a son, whom they treated like a precious jewel. He also saw the failures with their little pale doll-like girls, all ringlets and flounces. He spoke to them, telling them he had a solution to their problems. All they needed to do was bring in their husband, brother, father or son for three 'flu jabs' and their lives would change. Some shook their heads sadly, but many of the younger ones were eager to try it, especially as the doctor reassured them there would be no side effects. Twenty three men were dosed in the first round, and seventy eight in the second. Not a single one had a daughter. In the great joy that ensued, some of the women disclosed their secret. Some men were angry at being tricked, but most were flattered and intrigued: now they could only have sons! Word spread, and men began coming to see Dr Shankar for minor complaints, leaving with smiles on their faces, He asked for no payment, but they left gifts. Many gifts. The most notorious was a five-bedroom mansion in Simla from Swastik Vaghela, CEO of the Ramdhun Group. This 'donation' was listed as charity and was therefore tax-free.

The Ramdhun Collaboration
Soon Shankar's chain of clinics had grown too big for him to handle on his own; strangely, he and his wife remained childless, a fact that occasioned ribald jokes in private among his male patients. He approached the Ramdhun group with a proposal: they buy his clinics, and he gets to develop new antisense-based products for them. The deal was done and he was installed at the head facility of the Ramdhum Medicare Network. He also treated Swastik Vaghela the CEO of Ramdhun, who was desperate for a son. Around 2019 he adminstered Humane Choice to Vaghela,

Globetrotter Flu
Rumours began linking Humane Choice to the worldwide epidemic of globetrotter flu. Globettrotter flu was much milder than their SARS, swine flu or bird flu. Sufferers usually had six months of low-grade intermittent fever followed by spontaneous recovery. Howver, rumours also sadi that a bout of globetrotter had the same effect as three doses of Humane Choice, but this was never medically proven.

The Broken Pots
In 2019, Ms Smita Parekh was disqualified from the Miss Universe pageant in Dubai and stripped of her title as Miss India. The Reason; she failed a routine DNA tests: she was found to be an XY female. Her disgrace opened up a can of worms; teenage girls everywhere were suffering from a strange new cancer. On investigation it was foudn that they had no uteri and did not menstruate, although they looked very feminine with big breasts, luxurious hair and thin waists. These children were males who had failed to go down the male developmental pathway because fo a fault in their Y chromosomes, the exact nature of which was hotly debated. These children were crhistened Broken Pots by the media.

The Hanyos
Around the same time as Ms Parekh's disgrace, baby boys started to pour into hospitals with a curious constellation of ailments. They had extreme, life-trheatening allergies, hypersensitve skin, red eyes and an extreme aversion to beign touched. Some of them reacted so strongly to handling they would go into seizure. Most of these boys died in the emergency rooms, but Pradip Shankar began to save them. He sought desperately for a way, and eventually came up with the Low Sensory Load System of bringing them up.

The 'Broken' Y Genes
Pradip Shankar's own theory, articulated many years after the hanyos had become the only males on earth, was that Humane Choice 'broke' the Y chromosome, causing it to no longer turn on the constellation of genes that produced maleness. The Y crhomosome and its genes do not in themselves create males. Instead they 'switch on' certain genes in the autosomal regions, and the activity of these genes produces male characteristics. After his intervention, the Y genes either failed and produced Broken Pots, or succeeded but pointed to a different constellation, one that still produced males, albeit males who could only survive after extensive medical intervention.

The HC Protocol in the Gatha Antisense
The Gatha Antisense contains a codon called the HC Protocol which indirectly references Humane Choice and its role in creating hanyos.