I see a flaw in the morality of the crew in Nothing Human

[Guy Gardener]

This was explained to me on an episode of LA LAW where a Jewish family was trying to suppress findings from Nazi experiments during the war used during the current research towards modern medicine...

It was something like "If we say that this is fine, that the ends justify the means, that just gives the next lot permission to use people like cattle to further their own understanding of science, because in retrospect they will be forgiven anything if their findings are useful, so they'll keep butchering and vivisecting until they get out of the red."

Helen Magnus in a flashback last week was threatened with jail time for stealing corpses, since at the time it was immoral and illegal for anyone to experiment on the dead.

 

[DonIago]

It's very faulty logic to take it from "let's benefit from this atrocity that already occurred" to "since we benefitted from this atrocity before it's okay to do it again."

Though I guess some people are that morally flexible.

 

[Guy Gardener]

but the atrocity wasn't the experimentation, it was that some people were classified as magnificently more expendable than other people, and honestly not people at all. Once you have decided that say you are allowed to kill a thousand Bajorans to save one Cardassian you have achieved your new moral equilibrium and as long as you keep to that then you are a good person.

Morality shifts all the time.

 

[exodus]

Didn't B'Elanna specifically say she didn't want to be saved using knowledge gained by Moset? That's the issue for me, whether the patient has the right to refuse treatment. Janeway decided she didn't, which might be within her rights as captain. I'm not really sure of the moral absolutes in these circumstances.

I believe the argument was that B'Elanna as chief engineer was so vital to the safety of the crew that the captain couldn't just let her die.

Also, may as well admit it, when we care about someone we want to keep them around by any means necessary.

I guess that answers how Janeway felt about Tuvix.

 

[kimc]

Didn't B'Elanna specifically say she didn't want to be saved using knowledge gained by Moset? That's the issue for me, whether the patient has the right to refuse treatment. Janeway decided she didn't, which might be within her rights as captain. I'm not really sure of the moral absolutes in these circumstances.

I believe the argument was that B'Elanna as chief engineer was so vital to the safety of the crew that the captain couldn't just let her die.

Also, may as well admit it, when we care about someone we want to keep them around by any means necessary.

I guess that answers how Janeway felt about Tuvix.

She cared enough about Tuvok and Neelix to restore them to their original state instead of leaving them trapped where they were. Tuvix said it himself when trying to seduce Kes: "Tuvok and Neelix are alive IN me."

 

[exodus]

I believe the argument was that B'Elanna as chief engineer was so vital to the safety of the crew that the captain couldn't just let her die.

Also, may as well admit it, when we care about someone we want to keep them around by any means necessary.

I guess that answers how Janeway felt about Tuvix.

She cared enough about Tuvok and Neelix to restore them to their original state instead of leaving them trapped where they were. Tuvix said it himself when trying to seduce Kes: "Tuvok and Neelix are alive IN me."

From that statement, I'm not sure I'd consider them trapped. Aren't they both speaking through him then?

 

[DonIago]

I'm pretty sure the statement wasn't meant to be taken literally in any case. I'd interpret it more as though I were saying my parents are alive within me.

 

[exodus]

I'm pretty sure the statement wasn't meant to be taken literally in any case. I'd interpret it more as though I were saying my parents are alive within me.

Well, seeing how the whole thing ended.
Neelix & Tuvok literally were still kinda alive within him.
....but I agree with your POV as well.