Black Market Cybernetics Procedure Takes Life

March 13th, 2041:
Son of Strommon C.E.O. Dies Following Botched Black Market Cybernetics Procedure -
Berlin, Germany
Philip Sales, seventeen year old son of Strommon C.E.O. Peter Sales, was found dead by two Berlin sanitary workers yesterday morning. His body was found in a downtown alley with both arms surgically removed at the shoulders. The official cause of death was determined as infection brought on by medical incompetence. He is just one more death in a growing list of casualties related to a burgeoning underground market of illegal cybernetic limb replacement procedures.
Reports state that the young boy, like hundreds of other ultra-privileged youth over the past few years, became enamoured by the idea of cybernetics after the well documented case of Consortium Bishop Ten and his highly criticized enhanced cybernetic implants. Bishop Ten is well known as the unintended poster boy for cybernetic limb replacement in the military market. The problem is he was also the first well documented case of someone receiving enhancements to their implants, enhancements which made him stronger, faster, and generally super-human in the eyes of impressionable youth.
A role model was made almost overnight and suddenly military-grade cybernetics was not only brought to the forefront of the public's attention, but more importantly it became "cool." This of course came after years of clever marketing geared toward portraying modern cybernetics as the act of mimicking human body parts and condemning unnatural enhancements for the general populous.
The black market sale of cybernetic implants and the illegal practice of underground doctors in the field have been running rampant for years. Rich kids with self-image issues and too much money and time on their hands are having their bodies voluntarily taken apart and put back together again. As the technology progresses and becomes more popular, so too does the black market expand and its prices drop. If this trend continues unabated then soon implants will become nearly as simple and cheap to acquire as a tattoo or a piercing.
The problem is getting worse and the only way to fight it is to keep an eye on your own children, and educate them about their bodies at an early age. Fifteen years ago the worst thing body image problems among youth led to was eating disorders - now we can thank technology for making an age old problem that much more terrifying.
Category:Strommon Industries
Category:Cybernetics
Category:Daimon Arcos