I must admit I don't get a lot of the opinions here. I thought it was one of the series' more powerful episodes, and more than a story of Tuvix it was a story of what it means to be a captain. This story hearkened back to Jim Kirk, and making a decision that was what the captain believed was the right thing to do - and the captain alone making the moral sacrifice in order to protect the crew. In another episode, Janeway told Chakotay, "Then I am alone". I believe this was further exploration of that idea.
I am not ready to call any murders here. Tuvix was the combination of two living beings into one. Then by the same process, split into two living beings again. If anything it was a recreation of a technical accident, but one might call the invention of the transporter murder as well, since it basically deconstructs and reconstructs people who could arguably be called "not the same person", since those living systems were temporarily suspended from their place in the universe. Or more to the point, the transporter made this accident happen, and undid it too.
I believe calling it murder is not only alarmist and sensational, but presupposes one's own moral superiority over the issue itself - Tuvix had individual rights, and so do Tuvok and Neelix, who I'm sorry, were not dead, but melded.
And how is ending a mind meld any different? Is it "murder"? It is the melding and disassociating of two minds, arguably the individual personality.
Further I say the show succeeded because here we are still debating the issue.
I agree with her decision. The haunting pleas of Tuvix on the bridge were quite disturbing. I do not fault the crew - they chose to agree with the captain. Had any one of them disagreed we most certainly would have heard about it.
Further, Captain Janeway took her cue from Kes. As mentioned previously, the closest thing to family Neelix had. It was Kes, closely bonded to both men, who ultimately could not accept Tuvix as an individual whose interests superceded those two men he was blended from.
Tuvix showed a remarkable difference from Neelix and Tuvok in that he was a coward who put his own interests above that of the ship, and indeed, the two men who were being sacrificed that he may live. Who was he to "murder" those two innocent men?
All I'm saying is to be so ready to come to the defense of Tuvix, but to write off the two crewmen as "dead", is hardly humane or enlightened either, and could just as easily be argued as murder.
Either way could put the captain into the seat of the accused. Both acting and not acting was a guilty choice. She protected her crew from that guilt and shouldered it herself, making what she determined was the most humane choice, weathering those haunting cries and standing firm. I think this is precisely the kind of story Trek should do more of.
I am not ready to call any murders here. Tuvix was the combination of two living beings into one. Then by the same process, split into two living beings again. If anything it was a recreation of a technical accident, but one might call the invention of the transporter murder as well, since it basically deconstructs and reconstructs people who could arguably be called "not the same person", since those living systems were temporarily suspended from their place in the universe. Or more to the point, the transporter made this accident happen, and undid it too.
I believe calling it murder is not only alarmist and sensational, but presupposes one's own moral superiority over the issue itself - Tuvix had individual rights, and so do Tuvok and Neelix, who I'm sorry, were not dead, but melded.
And how is ending a mind meld any different? Is it "murder"? It is the melding and disassociating of two minds, arguably the individual personality.
Further I say the show succeeded because here we are still debating the issue.
I agree with her decision. The haunting pleas of Tuvix on the bridge were quite disturbing. I do not fault the crew - they chose to agree with the captain. Had any one of them disagreed we most certainly would have heard about it.
Further, Captain Janeway took her cue from Kes. As mentioned previously, the closest thing to family Neelix had. It was Kes, closely bonded to both men, who ultimately could not accept Tuvix as an individual whose interests superceded those two men he was blended from.
Tuvix showed a remarkable difference from Neelix and Tuvok in that he was a coward who put his own interests above that of the ship, and indeed, the two men who were being sacrificed that he may live. Who was he to "murder" those two innocent men?
All I'm saying is to be so ready to come to the defense of Tuvix, but to write off the two crewmen as "dead", is hardly humane or enlightened either, and could just as easily be argued as murder.
Either way could put the captain into the seat of the accused. Both acting and not acting was a guilty choice. She protected her crew from that guilt and shouldered it herself, making what she determined was the most humane choice, weathering those haunting cries and standing firm. I think this is precisely the kind of story Trek should do more of.
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that's exactly what I thought! Or B'Ellotay 7 Doc 7 Harryn... Guy Gardener, you open a large can o' worms suitable for Academy Ethics class! Now that's a series premise! Debate the actions of Starfleet in the field... But I don't feel Janeway was bargaining or assigning values, weighing her decision like a butcher weighs meat. Anyway, she may have decided either way .. which itself is part of the story, that technology forces these decisions on us. Choosing inaction is also a moral choice and does not free one from accountability,..though many in tthe world might believe their hands are clean due to their influence being indirect rather than direct....
You know what that statement implies, don't you?
