# Identify this science fiction story

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-science-fiction-story/514065>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 16, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-science-fiction-story/514065 "2009-10-16T18:25:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-science-fiction-story/514065/1 "2009-10-16T18:25:00Z")

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An expedition lands on a planet and one guy is killed. They catch the physically defective person that did it. It seems that the guy attacked the explorer because he couldn’t kill a man in combat. The normal thing for a father to do when his son reaches puberty is to kill a man in combat. The son is fed the testosterone producing body parts to give him enough of a boost to become sexually mature. Without the boost at the critical time they remain sexually immature for life. It turns out that there is an upper class that never have to deal with the death of family for this purpose, because the lowest class is used to provide the hormone boost. The wife of the dead explorer plans to give artificial hormones to this planet and destroy this dependence.

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**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-science-fiction-story/514065/2 "2009-10-16T19:43:18Z")

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Oh, I read this one this summer. It was, I believe, in a collection of short stories from some particular year in the '60s, or possibly in a collection of the best stories published in _Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine_. Can’t remember the title or author, though.

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**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-science-fiction-story/514065/3 "2009-10-16T21:14:37Z")

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It is decades old for sure.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-science-fiction-story/514065/4 "2009-10-16T21:36:13Z")

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_The Sharing of Flesh_, by Poul Anderson.

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**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-science-fiction-story/514065/5 "2009-10-16T21:55:07Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> _The Sharing of Flesh_, by Poul Anderson.

Thank you that’s it. It won a Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1969.