Certainly the question of being human is at the forefront for SF with a biological/genetic engineering theme. I wrote about it explicitly in Blueheart; it was one of the central arguments between Rache of Scole and Cesar, and at the core of the choice Cybele made. Rache never doubted his own humanity, or, for that matter, anyone else's. Biology and destiny works its way into the ORU as well. Erien, for one, has a lifelong quarrel with anyone who would define him by his artificial genome, built on a basic insecurity about whether of not he actually is defined by it. The Reetion influence doesn't spare him at all from the Gelack bloodline-is-destiny, because Reetion thinking for all it's highly individualistic is also deterministic. Not sure what he'd have to say to Rache, or Rache to him, about the philosophical aspects of being bioengineered beings; Rache would probably get rather testy and tell him to stop worrying about it and get on with life. I wonder where aliens fit in in a mediation on being human?
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