The major issue facing its era was regulating the creation and sale of custom-made children, particularly the largest corporation in the custom children industry, Kid A, Inc. The Secretary's main responsibility was to ensure that the industry operated safely for the benefit of society and the nation; to be blunt, the benefits were mainly the tax dollars generated for the federal coffers, and the sole safety consideration (the only topic that got the media's and thus the public's attention) the Secretary had to worry about was abortions, or "extrabortions" as it was commonly called. Some extrahuman rights activists objected to the term, although "extrahuman" had already been too widely and deeply ingrained in the lexicon to reverse.
It was perhaps a cruel irony that extrabortions could even be a problem for the custom children industry, yet there it was, year after year, a story or two would surface in the media, and always the same: parents change their minds, activist groups comment with some outrage, corporate spokesperson states policy of protecting client interests and never commenting on individual cases, and White House Press Secretary reads a statement from the Office of the Secretary of Extrahuman Affairs about its dedication to safety in the custom children industry for the benefit of society and the nation.
Kid A was particularly successful because they had a reputation for having the best "money" genes. Their children were engineered to be the best equipped at making money and being wealthy and successful in human society, and what parent wouldn't want such a meal ticket for later life and retirement? Of course, Kid A could basically charge whatever they wanted, because all LEE (Lifetime Earnings Estimates) for each custom child could only be given in ranges, and no guarantees at that. Kid A could rightly claim some of the most successful individuals of its time as its own, from multiquadrillionaire CEOs to some of the highest public offices, including a Secretary of Extrahuman Affairs (considered a great civil rights triumph by many extrahuman rights activists). With the lure of such promise, the highest average LEE and LEH (Lifetime Earnings Historical) in the industry, they could do all the business they could handle.
At the same time, peculiarly, Kid A was also responsible for the highest extrabortion rates in the industry. Only extrahuman rights activists really took the time to try to track and attribute extrabortion cases, and their efforts were generally considered educated guesswork at best. All companies were required to report these figures and other statistics to the Department of Extrahuman Affairs, but these were kept extremely confidential. The only public information in the industry was LEE and LEH. However, it was widely understood that although the extrahuman rights activists' absolute figures might be off, Kid A certainly had an unusually high annual extrabortion rate as a corporation given the quality and desirability of their product.
Kid A had been leading the industry for decades before whispers finally started surfacing regarding a second, and far more lucrative revenue stream for Kid A: the manufacture of children for their organs. Although the revenue per child for a high LEE product was certainly very high, it was also a highly costly engineering procedure, and the market was destined to be smaller and lower volume. Organs, however, were in constant need, and manufacturing a child, any child, with functioning healthy organs was much easier than painting the subtleties of personality and intelligence into the genes on top for a high LEE. The volume of this business for Kid A dwarfed the high LEE division, and returned far more dollars in profit as well; this was the secret strength of Kid A.
Right around when the first Kid A child in history was appointed Secretary of Extrahuman Affairs was when the rumors of the organ children emerged.
