Would You Upgrade Your Child?

I’ve been turning this question over in my mind for years.

Picture it: you’re expecting a child. The ultrasound shows a tiny heartbeat, a profile already hinting at features you’ll come to know by heart. Then someone offers you a choice. Not a simple medical decision—something deeper. With tools now edging out of the laboratory and into possibility, you could reach in and adjust. Heighten intelligence. Strengthen immunity. Sharpen reflexes. Erase vulnerabilities before they ever become wounds.

Would you?

I didn’t write Mortals As They Walk to lecture or predict the future. I wrote it because the question won’t leave me alone. It sits at the intersection of love and hubris, hope and fear, the ancient parental ache to protect and the modern temptation to perfect.

In the novel, the world has already crossed that line. Genetic engineering isn’t experimental anymore; it’s a secretive project spanning decades, from 2006 to 2038, weaving lives across continents—from the busy markets in Istanbul, to the cobblestone streets of Heidelberg, Germany, the streets of Paris, and to the windswept cliffs of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. The story follows three souls entangled in its web:

Pate Williamson, a once-promising tech innovator fallen to living on the streets, recruited for an experiment promising riches—but at a profound personal cost.

Eris, a woman shattered by the loss of her family and child, who joins the project seeking elusive answers from her past.

Salim, a teenager raised in a carefully curated lie, who uncovers his true identity as a product of this very experiment, turning him into a hunted target in a deadly game.

Their paths converge amid a conspiracy of nanobiots, in vitro modifications, and corporate greed. Hunted by black market forces desperate to exploit their unique DNA, they must decide: end the experiment that birthed them, or risk its misuse and alter humanity’s future forever.

I kept the science in the background, letting the human questions take center stage. What does it mean to rewrite someone’s destiny before they’re even born? How does the pursuit of perfection erode free will, identity, and the raw edges that make us truly alive? These aren’t abstract ideas—they’re the quiet torments that drive Pate’s redemption, Eris’s grief, and Salim’s awakening.

What inspired me? Watching real-world debates about genetic screening, the ethical tightrope families walk today. I wondered: if we can fix flaws in the womb, where do we stop? Does erasing potential suffering also erase the struggles that forge empathy and resilience? In Mortals As They Walk, these questions play out in high-stakes suspense, echoing films like Gattaca or The Island, but grounded in the personal costs we all recognize.

The book doesn’t hand you pat answers. It lingers, as readers have told me, replaying scenes of moral dilemmas in your mind, sparking conversations about what we owe our children—and what we might unwittingly take from them.

If the idea unsettles you, or intrigues you, or both, the novel is waiting. You can find Mortals As They Walk on Amazon, other major retailers, available in paperback, eBook, or audiobook.

How far would you go to enhance your unborn child?

In the end, the technology will keep advancing whether we like it or not. What matters is whether we remember what makes us mortal—and why that might still be worth keeping.