Something being illegal doesn't mean the government wouldn't do it. They just want a
monopoly on it. Say, handcuffing people and throwing them in locked rooms. Or taking their money by force, or killing them. So they write laws establishing this monopoly.
The ability to create supermen would certainly be among such things. It's a matter of superior power at its purest, and the government wants that power, not just for the thing itself, but for maintaining control over who gets it.
Nothing about Darwin was secret, it seems. Captain Telaka doesn't mention the Darwin experiments, but would the connection to their plight be obvious? The port of call is listed on the logs, not quoted as confidential or anything. Neither Riker nor Picard expresses unfamiliarity with this station. And Picard then proceeds to say how "the mere thought of a possible connection between the
Lantree tragedy and a genetic research facility fills me with profound apprehension".
Not "the mere thought of a genetic research facility fills me with profound apprehension"...
Doctor Kingsley in turn thinks the following words are reassuring: "Our research here is limited to human genetics."
There is ultimately also this exchange, as the two doctors ogle the children at play.
Pulaski: "Genetically engineered?"
Kingsley: "Not engineered, created."
Now Kingsley has the Mad Scientist Glee down pat there. But Pulaski isn't expressing Morbid Curiosity or Barely Hidden Disgust, just plain old Color Me Impressed.
Is the "factum, non genitum" response something Kingsley is legally required to insert at this juncture, though? Is it philosophically important to deny the engineering aspect? Is there something practically different here from the case of young Julian Bashir?
Timo Saloniemi
