Back to LH & Amos' comments, I believe the soul is without human attributes, and takes on a genetic pattern with each incarnation, like "clothes". This pattern determines our personality attributes and potential, for the lifetime. So yes, Little Hawk, my karma may eventually run down my dogma. That will teach me!

With gender, like everything it is genetically determined. I saw this documentary earlier in the week - The Gender Puzzle.

It is about people whose chromosomes don't match the standard. Women with internal testes, Men who can't process testoosterone, and so are like women. Scientists are studying them as a way of discovering the genes that determine everybody's gender. It was fascinating, and interviewed people with Androgen Insensivity Syndrome amongst others.