Horror Scenario: Babies without souls

[Otaku]

Oh, a lot of good ideas here. I like the idea of the soulless being tools. The question is, for who? Nothing says it has to be more than one group, either.

We could have a group of scientists and politicians, maybe within just one government, maybe within several. The soulless may be easier to mold, with positive and negative reinforcement providing predictable results. The soulless are highly intelligent and capable beasts, but still beasts. Train the dogs to obey while properly caring for them, and they can fake love and devotion through pure allegiance. Even if they are prone to more fleshly pursuits, as long as those have an appropriate outlet and their parents train them correctly, few would notice the difference from the natural born in possession of a soul.

Unknown to these people, a cabal of mystics have found a way to transfer the soul of their members to a new host body, but only if it lacks a proper soul... or maybe the other, established methods work but this way is somehow better. Maybe most (or at least enough to matter) of the soulless are problem-plagued children, but between those soulless now occupied by an old soul, and interference provided by this cabal, the results of early testing were falsified so that the process is seen as ideal.

Yes, I'm going to suggest a third angle as well. Whether aliens, demons, "others"... a third group capable of waiting hundreds or thousands of years for plans to reach fruition actually sowed the idea in the first place. The soulless are the only ones the aliens or outsiders can possess... maybe at all, or maybe without negative side effects. If there is something resembling the Judeo-Christian notion of God, who tends to be pretty big on that whole "Man is made in the image of God" kind of thing, the soulless are like a pretty big insult, which would make the demons like the soulless even more, regardless of any other benefits. Again, if this is kosher with the setting. ;)