Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 60: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE MUTILANTS difficult aspect of human modification: the emotional complications that follow. Do you know,” he said, “that most subjects view modifica- tion not only with distaste, but with fear and horror— _ simply because it precludes sex relationship from their future activities? This emo- tion is so strong, stemming as it does from the philopro- genitive instinct necessary for racial or special preservation —and self-preservation is sim- ply a projection of that—so strong, I repeat, that we found not a single true volun- teer for the Mark IV modi- fications!” “Didn’t you?’ I muttered, weakly. : “No, simply because it involved a neuterisation of the _ sex hormones. And do you know how I obviated this mental resistance ?”’ I shook my head from side to side, side to side, side to side ... The rushing noises of unconsciousness were de- scending upon me. I was about to faint, I told myself, and groped blindly for support. Thinly, as though from a distant point within a vast 59 and hollow cave, I heard Kersch reply to my head- shaking. ‘“‘By hypnosis, of course. In this way the subject is not actually forced to undergo the operations. He volunteers, under hypnotic pressure, and later feels no resentment against myself or the other surgeons. We tell him whom to resent.” As I sagged back against the wall, Kersch lowered me gently to something—I don’t remember what—and the hopeless, sickly trembling of faintness gave way to a feeling of relief that I was past resistance and now the re- sponsibility of another and more capable mind. “This is where I am in- valuable,” he was saying, gently. “The patient trusts me, and, I being a surgeon as well as a hypnotist, it is possible to maintain the sub- ject in a state of submission throughout the whole of a series of major operations. When the trance effect is removed, and the patient sees for the first time what has been done to him, he sometimes dies of shock. We are reducing the mortality rate by more Comiclbookks.cotn ~