Unnatural Selection
- Thread starter Thanos007
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I'd say yes since a starfleet vessel went there on a supply mission
Also, while the possibility of the Lantree's troubles being related to a genetic engineering research station "filled Picard with apprehension", he never felt the station itself was objectionable or anything.
Seems consistent enough. The government wants to regulate genetic engineering in order to stop new Khans from emerging, but that only means keeping reckless or malevolent people from doing the stuff. The government reserves the right to conduct well-regulated and responsible research, including studies directly and openly aimed at creating supermen.
Isn't that what governments do? Gun bans don't mean disarming the cops. Making stabbing with sharp blades illegal doesn't require the jailing of surgeons. Private citizens upgrading their kids vs. the government manufacturing superkids in a lab is just gang violence vs. army maneuvers.
Timo Saloniemi
Seems consistent enough. The government wants to regulate genetic engineering in order to stop new Khans from emerging, but that only means keeping reckless or malevolent people from doing the stuff. The government reserves the right to conduct well-regulated and responsible research, including studies directly and openly aimed at creating supermen.
Isn't that what governments do? Gun bans don't mean disarming the cops. Making stabbing with sharp blades illegal doesn't require the jailing of surgeons. Private citizens upgrading their kids vs. the government manufacturing superkids in a lab is just gang violence vs. army maneuvers.
Timo Saloniemi
Supposedly not the Federation. Also later episodes of DS9 and Enterprise will refute this, will they not?
Doesn't mean the Lantree's crew actually knew what was going on there.
As for the station itself: Maybe the events of this episode are what actually got the Federation to ban genetic engineering. After the thing with Khan (Space Seed/TWOK), there was probably a lot of debate over what to do about it, so perhaps the controversy festered so long in the Federation government that a catastrophe like this one was the final tipping point.
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^Well said, as it’s never established when the ban was put in place. I’ve always thought it would be interesting to revisit Darwin Station to see if the children were able to be reunited with their parents.
Some time before the birth of Dr. Bashir. So before this episode takes place
Not necessarily. Bans can be lifted and then reinstated. It’s possible that these children were conceived, and their genomes, modified, during a period in which genetic engineering was legal or at least permitted under circumstances other than those outlined by Bashir. As Mr. Laser Beam pointed out, this situation may have prompted further consideration of the Federation’s laws and led to the ban referenced in DS9.
It could be that Darwin Station was operating under a special medical exemption the Federation Council had approved. Kind of like what is going on now with embryonic stem cells research.
How so? It's all about this "private citizens must not engage in illegal engineering", with nothing said against legal engineering as such.
The local stuff seemed eager to proudly present their research to the E-D heroes, though. And a guided tour would have been a likely way for the Lantree crew to contract the "disease".
Timo Saloniemi
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