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Tuvix

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Taken literally, Janeway or anyone responsible for committing capital punishment also doesn't have a right to life then.

I'm sure that's not what you actually meant though. Just saying it sounded a bit vague.
 
I'd like to note that the brilliance of the story is that folks are still debating Janeway's solution and Tuvix's desire to live all these years later. In that respect, the ep is a success.
 
^True. I guess if I were Tuvix, I'd want to live, too. Not sure where I come down in the debate, as I can see merit in all the arguments.
 
Like Tuvix a child is a product of two lives through sexual reproduction. The only difference is that the child has it's own personality.

Actually, you're forgetting about the life of the orchid that caused the whole mess to begin with. Damn that orchid!

;)
 
There are exceptions to murder like self defense and at time of war or even capitol punishment. Of course Christ didn't believe in CP but I don't believe in abortion either.
 
Or being an absolute dictator or absolute monarch?

Where everything you do is lawful no matter how reprehensible?
 
Hm. I did mean to say earlier that I would have had more respect for Janeway's decision if there had been some indication that legal precedents were considered and Tuvix was provided with counsel (or at least given the option to decline it).

Alternatively, though far outside the scope of the episode, it would have been interesting if Tuvix had "borrowed" a shuttlecraft and sought asylum from a civilization with which Voyager had no significant preexisting conflicts.
 
I think that Tuvix right to life was as strong as any other sentient lifeform. It doesn't matter how that life came to be, whether it was accidental or not. A sentient's live to right should be totally independant on what happened to others before he came to be.

Either Tuvix had the same right to life as everyone else or he had no rights at all because he wasn't a person.

Janeway actually recognised Tuvix as a person from the moment he was created. She called him by a new name. She treated him as a living sentient being. She gave him a position in the crew.If a crew member had pulled out a phaser and killed Tuvix during an argument a week after Tuvix was created Janeway would have considered that murder and it would have been.

You can't give someone equal rights and then take them away when it is inconvenient to treat them as equals.

This deserves to be quoted because after this, all other arguments are irrelevant.
 
Agreed, though ultimately the dissenting opinion appears to be that Tuvix was never a person (regardless of apparent recognition) to begin with and consequently was never entitled to said rights.
 
Like Tuvix a child is a product of two lives through sexual reproduction. The only difference is that the child has it's own personality.

Actually, you're forgetting about the life of the orchid that caused the whole mess to begin with. Damn that orchid!

;)


Kinda silly that that ordinary matter would effect energetic transport in such a way but you're right I forgot about the orchid that mediated the creation.

I think that Tuvix right to life was as strong as any other sentient lifeform. It doesn't matter how that life came to be, whether it was accidental or not. A sentient's live to right should be totally independant on what happened to others before he came to be.

Either Tuvix had the same right to life as everyone else or he had no rights at all because he wasn't a person.

Janeway actually recognised Tuvix as a person from the moment he was created. She called him by a new name. She treated him as a living sentient being. She gave him a position in the crew.If a crew member had pulled out a phaser and killed Tuvix during an argument a week after Tuvix was created Janeway would have considered that murder and it would have been.

You can't give someone equal rights and then take them away when it is inconvenient to treat them as equals.

This deserves to be quoted because after this, all other arguments are irrelevant.

I recognizes these as excellent arguments on the behalf of Tuvix. This illuminates the contradictions in an outstanding way.

I understand why Janeway did it... Logic to that purpose would agree that the needs of the many are more important, however logic to individual rights contradicts that so as to wonder if logical purposes contradict each other then the perhaps the only correct course of action is to do nothing.

If I put this in a biblical sense, Christ chose to die for billions of people across the world to answer for God's law of eye for an eye.

Even though logic might dictate that God force Jesus to make this sacrifice he rather allowed the person that would die to make that choice...to sacrifice himself, selflessly.

I have to say that is perhaps the most...reprehensible thing about Tuvix is that he was to afraid to do the right thing AND perhaps to equally reprehensible that Janeway forced him to do so.
 
Trying to figure out some reprehensibilitymeter here, where do you put the Doctor on it for refusing to save Neelix and Tuvok, and Kes for lobbying for Tuvix's execution with emotional blackmail?

It's not like anyone else knocked on Janeway's door in the middle of night insisting on perhaps alternate methods of punishment or leniency for Suder or the Equinox 5?

How may crew did Tuvok murder in repression when he was subject to antimaquis programming?

3 or 4 maquis crewmen?

OH.

He put is victims into comas with his telepathic abilities.

I suppose if the programming was triggered in Tuvix later, baring that he might not be able to meld, if he wanted to take out a significant amount of the crew at one point, he was the vessels cook, not that if Neelix was still the chef, no one would notice that anything had been poisoned.
 
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I think that Tuvix right to life was as strong as any other sentient lifeform. It doesn't matter how that life came to be, whether it was accidental or not. A sentient's live to right should be totally independant on what happened to others before he came to be.

Either Tuvix had the same right to life as everyone else or he had no rights at all because he wasn't a person.

Janeway actually recognised Tuvix as a person from the moment he was created. She called him by a new name. She treated him as a living sentient being. She gave him a position in the crew.If a crew member had pulled out a phaser and killed Tuvix during an argument a week after Tuvix was created Janeway would have considered that murder and it would have been.

You can't give someone equal rights and then take them away when it is inconvenient to treat them as equals.

This deserves to be quoted because after this, all other arguments are irrelevant.
...but Tuvix also willingly agreed that if a "cure" was ever found to seperate Neelix & Tuvok again, Tuvix would willingly give up his existance for them. It was the only reason Tuvix was allowed to live to begin with.
 
Trying to figure out some reprehensibilitymeter here, where do you put the Doctor on it for refusing to save Neelix and Tuvok, and Kes for lobbying for Tuvix's execution with emotional blackmail?

"I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.
But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts."

I find the doctor was in agreement with the honor of the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. Kes however ...that wasn't a good moment for her.
 
It may have been morally dubious but it needed to be done. Tuvok was vital to Voyager's survival, Tuvix wasn't. (I haven't seen the episode in a while so I'll have to check Memory Alpha later.) Am I disappointed Neelix lived? Yes. Do I wish Tuvix made it out somehow? Yes. But Voyager needed Tuvok and there was no other way.
 
I'm one of those people that liked Neelix. He was person I liked because he wanted to be liked by every one. Tuvok seemed replaceable to me. But I wanted Neelix to be security officer.
 
..but Tuvix also willingly agreed that if a "cure" was ever found to seperate Neelix & Tuvok again, Tuvix would willingly give up his existance for them. It was the only reason Tuvix was allowed to live to begin with.
if Tuvix had said no from the beginning he still would have a sentient being with the right to say no and the right to life.

if I agreed to donate my kidney to someone I can legally pull out of the agreement if I want to even if it means the person I had agreed to save dies.

Tuvix was a much a sentient life as Professor Moriarty was and Picard quickly realsied that Moriarty had a right to exist.
 
It may have been morally dubious but it needed to be done. Tuvok was vital to Voyager's survival, Tuvix wasn't. (I haven't seen the episode in a while so I'll have to check Memory Alpha later.) Am I disappointed Neelix lived? Yes. Do I wish Tuvix made it out somehow? Yes. But Voyager needed Tuvok and there was no other way.

If Tuvok had died Voyager would have continued on without him. He was an important crew member but not vital. Tuvix was doing Tuvok's job adequately.

I think that the Doctor was a more important member of the crew than Tuvok was. But when the Doctor's mobile emitter was fused to create One ,Janeway didn't consider sacrificing One (even though he might be a danger to the crew) to get the mobile emitter back. The Doctor was able to carry out his job far more effeciently with the emitter and I would say that the emitter was more essential to the crew's survival than Tuvok was.
 
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