Birth Row

Part Three

When it was legalized in 2043, rebirthing was immediately embraced by the ultra rich. An exclusive club was born, based on vast wealth and a desire to maintain superiority.

This was the point of divergence, where medical science had finally outdistanced the social acceptance of those it was meant to serve.

To their surprise, the chosen few who paid the exorbitant cost soon found they were outcasts from society, considered foreign--alien and shunned. It was as if they were a parallel species suddenly thrust into humanity against their will.

The panacea of renewed youth came with a price higher than money or power could equalize.

During the initial euphoric rush of the aging ultra rich ready to cheat death, they were all too happy to give media interviews. But the adoration and respect they anticipated from the masses turned quickly into rejection.  

It was during those early interviews that people first noticed the changes caused by the rebirthing process. Subtle but distinct, these differences were frightening to most, causing a storm of anti-rebirthing sentiment that only grew stronger with time.

Glued to the public view screens, more than a billion people watched as the first few clients emerged from therapy after the process. These lucky few gladly sat in front of the cameras, expecting a world full of applause, envious of their jump to a new life, with the wisdom and extended riches it would bring them.

They came out as young as possible while still keeping control of their wealth. Watching a hairless eighteen year old speak with the wisdom acquired over a ninety year lifetime was eerie in itself, but the process had other effects.

Given time, the hair would grow back, and the other differences were subtle enough to go unnoticed in a crowd. But life doesn’t happen exclusively in a crowd. Humans, as a species, evolved to form complex relationships based on social interactions—to read each other’s faces. It’s how they banded together to survive against stronger animals, and it’s so deeply engrained in the fiber of human existence, that wars are fought over it.

Being different is frightening to most people. Not that the rebirthed people were alien at a glance, but nonetheless, because of the initial media attention, they were immediately unpopular. When viewed close up, it was apparent they were different, it was felt, sensed in the way another animal would instinctively recognize a similar yet foreign species.

These were the wealthiest of people that bought a place in line for rebirthing. As magnates of industry, creating generations of wealth, they were used to being envied by the masses and photographed by the media. Accomplishing the feat of cheating death, only to be summarily rejected by the rabble was an unexpected turn of events.

But the ultra rich adapted. After the first year, interviews were no longer granted, nor were the names of any private clients ever released again. Any news of rebirthing dried up. The average citizenry heard nothing further, except for tabloid babble on the billboard view screens that were a ubiquitous part of modern life.

However, Life Renewal Technologies, Inc., the company that created the procedure, was alive and well with a healthy bottom line. The rebirthings obviously continued, but only in strict secrecy.

It didn’t take many clients to reap the company fat profits. The price was half of the client’s wealth, and they had to submit to a thorough accounting of assets prior to acceptance in line for the procedure. This meant each client had a different price, but they were accepted only if their assets were high enough. No one except the clients and Life Renewal Technologies knew what that number was, and no one ever talked.

The general public shunned anyone who was rebirthed. But, the ultra wealthy didn’t mingle with the little people, so other than their pride, it didn’t seem to have much of an effect.

Business was steady, but the pool of billionaires wasn’t large. Like any company, Life Renewal wasn’t happy with a business that had little potential for growth, even if it was wildly profitable.

It didn’t take long for Life Renewal to find another client base for its technology. 

In the mid twenty-first century, after decades of relative calm, violent crime rates increased dramatically as the world endured the combined agonies of population growth and increasingly pressured resources. In the United States, public opinion shifted from capital punishment to multiple life sentences with no chance of parole. As a result, huge prisons sprouted in the vast heartland of America.

Seeing an opportunity, Life Renewal offered family members of murder victims the option of paying the rebirthing fee for their relative’s murderer. Finally, a murderer who received a multiple life sentence could do the time--all of it.

Justice would be served to its fullest measure.

Relatives could ensure the murderer of their loved ones would have to endure their full multiple life sentences.

At seventy the convicted murderer was placed on birth row for medical supervision to ensure they remained alive. At seventy-five, the prisoner was rebirthed to age twenty-one, and immediately began serving the next life sentence. Payment was on a case by case basis and often paid by fundraisers headed by concerned citizens.

In order to gain approval, the company worked out a payment formula with the prison system.

Some people got rich.

No one ever spoke of the cost.

Over time, the prison rebirthing program became as profitable to Life Renewal as the private market. Growth of the criminal population steadily consumed more and more tax money through the prison system. Rebirthing represented a new source of funding that both politicians and the public embraced.

The only ones who lost out were convicted murderers.

It made sense to everyone who mattered.