The only way to settle the ethics would be to ask Tuvok and Neelix their thoughts just after the split but the show never did. Tuvix had both their memories, its safe to say they would have carried some memories of the merge.
I bet that they would acknowledge they felt happy merged but that once split they do prefer to be themselves.
Either way, regardless of ethics, Janeway her profession responsibility as a captain is towards her crew and they are 2 established members of her crew who each had a distinct and important roles, it was the correct choice to undo the creation of a new “alien” life which could never perform both jobs simultaneously as well with curing her 2 crewmembers to their original form on the table.
There is also that episode where Janeway and Tom Paris evolve into lizards and start a family, arguably this is proof they where happy in this form, yet there was no ethical dilemma discussed to bring them back.
I think the lizard comparison misses the crux of the issue. The lizards were not intelligent life, and they themselves were compromised of an individual crew member. You are essentially just changing the form of the lizard, ie a single individual, back to its original form.
But Tuvix was different. It was the blending of two forms that created a distinct new individual. That individual was intelligent and wanted to live.
Not the same as the lizards at all.
And remember we know transporter clones are possible. A clone of Tuvix could have been made, even if the crew wasn’t aware of this possibility they could have at least thought about a way to save Tuvix. They spent a lot of time figuring out how to separate them, and essentially no time trying to figure out how to keep Tuvix alive. If they had worked on the issue for a few more days that would have been different, but instead they debated the ethics of murder for a bit and went for it.
There were no troubling ethical issues with what Janeway did.
Tuvix was a freak accident that should have never existed, and the only way for it to exist would be to kill 2 members of her crew. The only ethical thing for her to do would be to undo the accident.
I mean that was kind of a false choice forced onto the story by the writers. They could have done a transporter cloning and split one while keeping the other. You could argue the ethics of transporter cloning, which sadly none of the series ever really address in depth, but it’s been proven to be possible with Riker. One could argue that it was a unique circumstance which couldn’t be replicated but that’s lazy writer handwaving to get around the whole show becoming about transporter clones. Just another of the many things introduced in one episode then forgotten about forever which should have changed the entire trek universe and could be the basis of an entire series by itself.
Riker was a freak accident caused by a storm, they couldn’t reliably create transporter duplicates or they would have
Apparently it was a common enough thing that Rutherford won a bet when it happened to Boimler.
While lower decks is official I don’t think it’s canon (I have not seen it though) and it happens after voyager.
https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/star-trek-lower-decks-canon-settle-debate/
The direct answer to the question “Is Star Trek: Lower Decks canon?” is yes. And that’s because the creator — Mike McMahan — has said its canon, and the show actually bends over backwards to make canonical references.
So yeah, everything from the Pakled war to that stupid toy “SPOCK” helmet is canon now.
Having never seen the show, I don’t know how to feel about that.
I think it cheapens a few plotlines to make transporter dupes frequent when it is unheard of in the other shows
I mean, I was overstating my case a little bit. To be fair, Riker and Boimler are the only actual examples we have of it (at least by that particular method), and Rutherford’s bet was more about that sort of wacky situation being “a Boimler kind of thing to happen” (possibly paraphrased).
like you were planned and weren’t an accident.
And those 2 crew members were dead already. instead we’re talking about murdering one innocent person in others to necromance 2 officers who signed for Starfleet and knew the risks.
Agreed. However, I’d totally kill neelix and tuvok for tuvix. Hell, I’d kill neelix for a turkey sub.
“The person in this car is happy to sacrifice their autonomy as long as they are, without consent, merged with a second person (again without consent) into a third independent being. Would we think Zenkeys ethical as long as both the zebra and donkey die in the process? According to r/tenforward, yes.”
