Beverly wears her heart on her sleeve, however. Her compassion was proven to be a net positive in "I, Borg"; a particular drone only survived because her protestation convinced Picard to give it a chance.
Honestly, Beverly, in I Borg, is my absolute low point for her. Hippocratic compassion is no excuse for the fact that her tampering in that crash scene (against direct orders not to) put not only her away team at risk, but potentially her whole ship, maybe the fleet, & even possibly the fate of every race in the UFP.
To her, it's a sick person, but in truth it is a timebomb. Is what she did the doctorly thing to do? Possibly. Is it the best course of action morally for an officer with countless lives hanging in the balance? I don't think so. She isn't only bound by the oath of a doctor, but the oath to serve Starfleet, & times like that it is the greater duty IMHO. She's a
Starfleet doctor. That distinction matters
I actually don't find Picard's attitude and backing of Worf in "Ethics" surprising at all.
I didn't mean to suggest it was out of character for him. All of what you added about him (and Crusher imho) is true. It is however a surprising aspect to the episode though, that anyone there would in any way be ok with his suicide, when we see Troi object, Riker recoil, & Beverly virtually betray her oath to respect patients' wishes.
Picard's words do come as a shock, after that, but I love that, because it informs of a man who HAS got respect for people's unique values about their lives. It's a respect I like to think has even been shown to grow with Worf particularly, during the show.
He is shown to be quite wounded about Worf's refusal in The Enemy. He outright begged the man. I don't think we ever saw that any other time. His refusal to order it (which Worf was expecting) wasn't so much about respecting Worf's decision, but about his own code for himself, that it's just ugly to have to order someone to make what we think are righteous choices. It's not his place to choose how Worf moves though his own life. He was even willing to risk a lot there by not ordering it, to stick to that principle.
However, soon after, we see Picard truly begin accepting the way that Klingons operate (whether he agrees or not) I think he had to do some hard soul searching to get there & understand a man who'd not care about the repercussions of refusing to help that Romulan.
That Picard is the one voice that gets Worf, in Ethics, speaks to that understanding, that he's worked on, which maybe the others haven't so much. He's stood by the guy, in rooms full of Klingons. He's had to issue him a reprimand for acting as one, during Duras' killing. He's had to decide if he was worthy of reinstatement after abandoning Starfleet to fight in a civil war. All this has built a foundation of understanding, that distances him from that wounded captain who couldn't convince him to save the Romulan.
