I like that you're accusing others of taking this too seriously while you're evidently content to write off the possibility that Our Heroes killed a sentient being because you're evidently utterly convinced of your own take on the matter and unwilling or unable to consider the possibility that you may be wrong. What's more troubling? Assuming Tuvix was sentient when he actually wasn't, and therefore no murder actually occured or Assuming Tuvix was not sentient when he actually was, and therefore what occurred was a form of murder Pardon some of us for preferring to err on the side of caution. Was Data a toaster?
Good catch but to me, Phlox is already a genocidal maniac so that part didn't shock me particularly. I mean when you're responsible for millions of deaths already, what's one more?
I'm starting to wonder if you're a toaster. No one killed anything. An accident was reversed. I'm not convinced on my take on the matter. There was only an accident, which combined two beings. If there was an entirely separate being, then there would be nothing to separate, and no need to separate it. The "sentient being" wasn't killed, it was separated into it's parts. Nothing died. Your record is skipping.
You're the one being dense. Tuvok and Neelix weren't Tuvix' parents. Tuvok and Neelix didn't donate a sperm and and an egg to create a third being. Tuvix wasn't a clone. Tuvix was Tuvok and Neelix. Do you get this? This is the little fact is the whole ball of wax, and you are ignoring it because it preempts your opinion. There was no death involved. There was a separation of the two original entities from the combination. No one's life was lost. The only question here is did the combined entity have any right to stay combined. Since the entity became Tuvix and Neelix again, no life or consciousness was LOST.
This is not even coherent with the take of the episode itself. Even Janeway took it as taking a life and she was the one who did it!!!
Except that there is nothing to "kill". Tuvix is the result of the accidental combination of Tuvok and Neelix. He isn't some new life. Tuvok and Nelix were separated from the combination. There was no death involved. Two bodies became one, one body became two. Nothing died. The combination of their "self" wanted to stay combined, but tough. It wasn't destroyed, it was separated. The question here was never Tuvix' right to "live", it was the question of whether or not "he" should be separated.