Yep.
I guess they needed a martyr (young, beautiful daughter of the leader of their government) to inspire the masses to commit suicide by virus. Showing her cured is sending the wrong message. Put the first pilot show in the can. Remake the pilot show with martyr #2.
Watching it this time I got a definite abortion debate vibe during Kirk's talk with Hodin.When people talk about how progressive Star Trek was, they always mention stuff like the kiss in Plato's Stepchildren, or the not so subtle "racism is bad" of Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, but this one often gets left out even though it is openly talking about birth control, which is weirdly still a taboo for some people, and then there's also...
"Yet you can kill a young girl."
I very much doubt this was actually intended, but if you take that conversation between Krik and Hodin out of context, Kirk is essentially arguing pro-choice there. That short exchange highlights the hypocrisy of protecting life from conception, when young women are forced to die as a result, here because of a "lack of space", but in the real world from the lack of availability of legal and safe abortion.
Again, I don't think this was consciously written in, indeed it does seem like just a side effect of a poorly thought out take on the dangers of overpopulation, but it is a possible reading of material, and for all the flak I've given Star Trek for being inadvertently sexist, I feel it needs to be mentioned when it's inadvertently pro women's rights as well.
On a little less serious note, I'm headcanoning that this is actually a prequel to Logan's Run, for a while the kids on Gideon were volunteering to die, and then at some point it becomes mandatory...
Also, Kirk apparently had a case of the Vegans, but got better. So eat your meats kids!
I'm reluctant to give credit for intent because to the best of my knowledge nobody is bragging about it being on purpose, and people involved with making Star Trek usually love to do that...
I have hope that Odona's eyes were opened to an other choice after she was inspired by Kirk, his Starship and the Federation. She might convince her father that the murder plan needs to be cancelled, and a new plan of emigration with the Federation's help would be a better choice.
I'm sure no one notified them that some viewers thought their lines only accidentally had some meaning or apparent thought behind them... they probably figure the lines speak for themselves...I'm reluctant to give credit for intent because to the best of my knowledge nobody is bragging about it being on purpose, and people involved with making Star Trek usually love to do that...
I thought the episode was a commentary on poor places in Africa where people kept having large families and refused contraception because of religious (Chistian) reasons.
Teleporting starships 900 light years! Solid Holograms without special rooms or even equipment! Advanced geophysical terraforming technology!...Nah, 100 years later in TNG there's none of it. Did Spock lose its address? 
