Suddenly Human - Fair Trick or Off Track?

[Gojirob]

At the end, it is largely shown that Endar was not the abuser he was suspected of being, or at least this must occur to Picard's satisfaction. But my problem comes in that the suspicion of abuse wasn't just snobbish Humans assuming that a warrior culture was barbaric through and through. It stemmed from scans of Jono/Jeremiah and the excuses for his injuries offered up by Endar himself. Maybe we were supposed to realize 'poor guy doesn't know how *he falls down a lot* sounds to us', but the excuses-again seemingly the truth in this case- are, in RL, huge red flags for suspicion of child abuse. Any case worker who heard a parent say such things and didn't act somehow would be in trouble.

We the viewers have only our experience to draw on. A child who looks injured may literally be clumsy and fall down a lot, and not want to talk about it for fear of being labeled clumsy. But a lot more people than not are going to wonder if they're being hit. I don't feel the ep was fair in using that particular set of phrases to make us wonder about Jono's well-being.

 

[Christopher]

^^Well, all that is true in our culture, but presumably Talarian culture is a lot more physical, with its children subjected to more strenuous activity and training as they grow up and thus more likely to sustain injuries. That's what Endar said, not simply that "he fell down a lot."

If you, say, examined a 17-year-old and found a lot of old injuries, you might suspect abuse. But what if you then learned that he had been on his high school football team for several years? Would you still assume the injuries suggested abuse, or would you conclude that the youth's physically strenuous lifestyle explained them?

 

[Gojirob]

I allowed for that, and in fact it is the explanation. I just don't know that Picard's motives were as unthinking as he seemed to indict himself and his culture for. I know that Endar's dialogue wasn't as simple as all that, but that seemed to be what it boiled down to. Picard was right in returning the boy, but also in moving on his suspicions. Those suspicions proved to be groundless, happily, but I don't think of this as the best example of 'oh them dumb Humans'.

 

[Timo]

It does beg the question of whether Picard would have been within his rights to act even if Endar was in the habit of beating his adopted son a lot. Endar and in practice also Jono were foreign nationals, after all, and not under the umbrella of any known "interstellar declaration of human rights", at least not explicitly so.

While child-beating today might be considered a "universal" offense, it is by no means legally such: some nations have strict legislation against all sorts of physical "parental intervention" while others encourage modest violence as a benign and beneficial method of upbringing. The situation would be even less clear-cut for the Federation, let alone for its relations with foreign entities (especially ones hostile to it).

Picard might not be chiding himself simply for jumping the gun on child abuse accusations, but rather for engaging in unacceptable diplomatic gaffes under the pretext of such accusations, ones that would later prove baseless.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Blueicus]

But Jono was presumably born a Federation citizen prior to the incident that brought him into Endar's care. Surely there must be some basis for him to return to the Federation based on that premise, in addition to all of the other issues raised in the episode.

 

[Timo]

Sure; but Picard was basing his whole quest of bringing Jeremiah back on the assumption that he was being (unduly) abused. When that basis evaporated, the idea of forcing Jeremiah's repatriation would suddenly begin to seem quite ill thought out, diplomatically and morally - and never mind how pure the motivations had originally been.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[DanCPA]

But Jono was presumably born a Federation citizen...

And he still was. Period. That is where Picard gets his authority to take the boy. I think if Jono had been younger, Picard might have made the decision for him all together... but Jono wanted to go back to his "father," and once Picard saw that there was no abuse... there is no reason to keep a father from his son

 

[sdayan]

I think that the fact that he was born a Federation citizen plus the fact that his "father" sort of took him like a trophy of sorts is what made Picard wnat to "forcefully" bring him back. At the end of the day, not being any abuse, and the child truly wanting to return to what he considers his reala family, he relented.

This is a classic Trek episode where an issue without a clear cut right or wrong solution is "debated".

 

[SchwEnt]

This TNG eps always brings my mind to DS9's "Cardassians".

The circumstances are not identical, but similar and with two different captain's decisions.

In TNG eps, Picard decides against returning the child to his biological family, instead letting him stay with the only family he's ever known.
In DS9 eps, Sisko lets the Cardassian war orphan return to his biological father, against the child's wishes and those of the Bajoran adopted parents.


As stated already, an issue debated in Trek without a clear cut right or wrong solution.