Chapter 6

When he returned to the office from lunch, Dr. Eisenstadt noticed a man, in his mid-thirties, wearing a suit, sitting in his waiting room. He smiled. "You must be Dr. Barton."

"You can call me Kevin. Is now a good time to conduct the interview, Dr. Eisenstadt?"

"Please, call me Jason." He glanced at his watch. "I guess now's as good a time as any. We may have to take a break when my next patient comes in. Won't you come back with me to my office?"

"Thank you."

As the two men reached the office, Dr. Eisenstadt took out a coffee mug and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Would you like a cup, Kevin?"

"No, thank you. Caffeine makes me jittery. I appreciate the offer, though."

"Fair enough, Jason. So, what can I do for you today?"

"Before we begin, do you mind if I record this conversation?"

"I'd be surprised if you didn't want to."

"Very well." He opened his comlink processor and tapped a few points on the screen. A series of beeps confirmed that the recording had begun. A smooth-sounding female voice spoke, "Today is Monday, June 12, 2152. Please state the names of the attendees."

Dr. Barton spoke. "Dr. Kevin Barton, interviewing Dr. Jason Eisenstadt, one of the physiologists who discovered the process that enabled the current boom in genetic breast augmentation."

The female voice confirmed, "Please proceed with the interview."

"Thank you."

Dr. Eisenstadt spoke first. "So, if you don't mind my asking, what are your responsibilities as a part of the, um, Itty Bitty Titty Committee?"

Dr. Barton scowled. "It's known as The Non-Augmented Mammaries Committee; please show some respect."

"Sorry! I couldn't recall the proper name of the committee."

"That's all right. I'm looking into the current state of the genetic procedures. How you arrived there, any future plans, etc."

"I see. Well, about twenty years or so ago, I was a part of a team that was experimenting with muscle development as a subset of genetic therapy. We were making some progress with it, but found that some muscles were more easily grown and strengthened than others. A colleague of mine, who observed the pattern of which muscles seemed most responsive to the therapy, postulated that it would work to help enlarge women's breasts."

"That's interesting. Then what happened?"

"Well, because of the nature of the testing that was necessary, we had to use apes, monkeys, and other primates to test it on. We tested about 100 animals and saw a universal truth: the enhanced females became better-endowed and were more attractive to potential mates, than the control group of females that wasn't enhanced."

"Across the board?"

"No exceptions."

Doctor Barton squinted and paused before continuing the interview. "How long have you been conducting this therapy?"

"As long as it's been legal."

"Do you perform any post-therapy monitoring of your patients?"

"Absolutely. We have not observed any adverse health effects on our patients, and this is without regard to age or duration of time following the therapy."

"But you're only limited to a 20-year window since your first patients, true?"

"Yes, but our oldest patient is now in her late 60's. You wouldn't know by looking at her, though."

"Have any of your patients had children since the therapy?"

"Yes, quite a few of them, actually. Those patients who wished to nurse their children have reported no problems with lactation or getting the child to latch. We've had a small number of patients who had children both before and after the therapy. I've heard no reports of issues with the post-therapy children."

"Have any of the post-therapy children entered puberty?"

"Yes. And again, no problems have been reported."

"Interesting. Out of curiosity, do you poll your patients over their reasons for seeking out the therapy in the first place?"

"I ask, but they're not under any obligation to answer me. I could look up specific response rates, but there's no question that the three most common reasons for requesting it are, um, self-confidence, a desire to please their partners, and peer pressure."

"Peer pressure?"

"Yes, peer pressure. Not necessarily direct pressure, mind you. I'm including jealousy of a friend or sister to be a form of peer pressure."

"That makes sense."

"Do you get requests for breast reduction, too?"

"Yes, but not many. Prior to genetic breast modification, the average woman's breasts were smaller than they were fifty to a hundred years previously. I don't have any concrete evidence to support this, but I suspect it ties in with genetic means of fighting obesity. At any rate, I thought we could perform breast reduction somewhat easily, but we found that it's easier to expand the size of the areola than it is to contract it. If the breasts are reduced in size too much, the areola becomes disproportionately large and it makes for a certain degree of discomfort."