Absolutely. It's just that Neelix would die while the lungs were still growing.
Not if the Doctor created holographic lungs like he originally did and then grew the new lungs using stem-cells.
As we previously saw, Federation technology CAN accelerate growth of various subtstances (including cloned Humanoids) to an exceedingly high degree...
On DS9, a clone was practically fully grown in a span of a day... individual organs would take much less time.
In TNG, a less advanced human colony was able to accelerate human clones growth to a similar level.
But as far as we can tell, transporter patterns are virtually useless as sources of information. The heroes never really know what they are transporting, after all.
Not really.
The transporter pattern was used on several occasions as an accurate source of information of a healthy individual.
Picard was reconstituted from energy into matter using his previous transporter pattern.
A healthy sample of dr.Pulaski's DNA was needed to cure her of the virus which made her age rapidly - this didn't rely on a previous transporter pattern (but it was mentioned that if they had one, it could have been used).
Picard, Guinan and Keiko's original transporter patterns were used as a template to help bring them out of adolescence into adulthood.
I'd say the info stored in a transporter buffer gives you pretty much exact details of a person and can be used as a rather reliable reference in medical treatments.
Basically, it seems a transporter just turns people into phased people and then back, without bothering with "specifications" much. It might be hellishly difficult to dig up relevant medical information from that, considering how it's never done: the only medical use witnessed has been to resurrect the whole package as a whole from an intact pattern. (Perhaps they should have created a full copy of Neelix and then harvested that for its lung?)
As far we were told, it the transporter turns them into an energy which is contained within a matter stream and then targeted to a certain location where it's re-assembled into matter.
To be able to accurately deconstruct a person like that into energy and then back into matter, the transporter needs to understand what to do (how the person looks like on the inside out, and it needs to be EXCESSIVELY detailed - probably to the subatomic level - to be able to do that... otherwise, if you miss out on a piece of information, you could end up as spread atoms or proverbial soup.
Not power (which the ship had aplenty, or she couldn't warp), but broken replicators. Inability to replicate enough was already an explicit issue, with the food rationing and all.
If the replicators were stated to have been broken, I would have agreed with you (and it does make sense).
Still, this was never explicitly mentioned to be the problem. Lack of power was predominantly the issue behind replicator use being rationed.
Apparently, the minor power reallocation hiccup where holodeck power couldn't be rerouted was never much of a deal, as rerouting of mere life support power (that is, some fans and heaters) solved it.
Except that they DID attempt to reroute power from the Holodeck in Season 5 (but failed - mainly because the hologrid was frozen at the time).
Albeit its possible the crew managed to make the Holodeck energy sources compatible with other systems by that point... still why would the holodeck have its own independent power source... and why would this energy be incompatible with the rest of the ship (especially because they had power conversion technology which can convert it from one form into another)?
Since this didn't happen, though, we can easily argue that the heroes just plain couldn't fix their machines unless they somehow obtained working machines with which to make the tools for fixing their machines...
The vicious circle could only be broken by reaching a friendly port where the replicators could be repaired - after which everything else could be trivially repaired, too, and the replicator rationing scheme would become a mere disciplinary tool with no practical significance. And that could only ever happen after the Nekrit Expanse.
And yet, Voyager seemingly had enough to affect major combat repairs, etc.
My guess is that the writers just didn't think this through enough within the context of what kind of technology they had to work with (and we've seen that they dumbed down technology use on numerous occasions for the sake of 'drama').
Either that, or, because the crew was rationing replicator use, those replicator rations could have went towards making of spare parts when they were needed.
...But if that's a bunch of cavemen, how can they one-up an advanced species that has dedicated millennia to medicine alone?
The Federation was not comprised of cavemen - but instead MULTIPLE highly advanced space fairing cultures.
Advancements occur on an exponential level, and the Federation is comprised of over 150 alien species by the late 24th century which shared information readily in most aspects of science and health. Automation alone is over 1000 times faster than humans in finding solutions to problems (even with current day technology).
150 alien species sharing info and tech/science evolving exponentially (especially with automated R&D with nothing more than specialized algorithms that are used right now) would easily surf past 1 race dealing with a medical problem for a 1000 years easily enough (even if they were dissecting other species).
And yes, same would apply in the 23rd century with less members (presumably a dozen or several dozen).
The Federation has radically advanced sensor technology (which is non-invasive to boot).
Some species which came aboard Federation ships were fearing medical examination and they had to be told its a non-invasive bio-scan.
But there's also another thing... in the first 2 seasons of Voyager, the crew more readily used terms such as 'Class V humanoid' when dealing with an unidentified species... that alone indicated that the Federation acquired extensive information about probable humanoid evolutionary patterns (from not just its member races but others in the AQ too) which gave them a unique way to better identify unknown alien species (and how to treat them in the process).
As the show went on, they stopped using those terminologies... and I noticed that medical treatments which the doctor treated in the first 2 seasons effortlessly, he suddenly couldn't DO anything similar without nanoprobes (a classical case of writers dumbing down technology in Trek to increase drama).
The Doctor was able to eradicate an infection on Be'Lanna and Kim which was given to them by the Caretaker in an attempt to reproduce.
And then after meeting 7 of 9, suddenly EVERYTHING required nanoprobes.
No doubt nanotechnology is highly effective, but the Federation has its own medical nanotechnology as well which would have been up to the task - but we know the writers didn't want to make things 'easy' on Voyager, so they ignored this.
Medicine on Earth today is incredibly backward chiefly because it is a taboo subject. While it is possible and, by current ethics, even obligatory to study and treat disease till the treatment kills the patient, it is forbidden to study health: healthy humans cannot be subjected to proper experiments where the pros and cons of assorted factors would be established. It was way, way worse just a couple of centuries ago, when we knew absolutely nothing about medicine (but thought we knew a lot) - again chiefly because of taboo issues and the ban on applying the scientific method on medicine. I don't see Trek's humanlike Federation members being any different in that respect.
Vidiians would not be hindered in that fashion. To the contrary, they would be vivisecting the hell out of every patient in their desperation. No ethical issues with healthy subjects would interfere, there being no healthy subjects!
Timo Saloniemi
The Federation would not have too many (if any) taboos that apply today... except when it comes to genetic modification of individuals for the purpose of enhancement... however, they still do extensive genetic studies to repair any potential genetic defects in individuals.
Also, the Federation is hardly only 'humanlike'.
Its supposed to be comprised of over 150 different alien species which cooperate and live together.
There would be no 'humanlike Federation'... they have a Federation Council comprised of numerous species for crying out loud.
The Federation does have certain 'standards' for entry, but those standards were drafted by all founding members of the Federation, not just Humans (even though Starfleet was designated to be the defensive and exploratory arm of the Federation - probably because Humans managed to bridge the gap between Vulcans, Tellarites and Andorians, who couldn't really find too common a ground before Humanity showed up).
But that's pretty much it... we know that Starfleet is highly diverse and probably doesn't apply same standards to ALL of the alien species that apply to go through the Academy, etc. - it wouldn't be possible... as not all Federation species are probably humanoid in the first place... and we've seen that one humanoid species in the federation can have many different needs than your run of the mill humanoid.
