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If you believe what Janeway did to Tuvix was wrong, does Spock get a pass?
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this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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Firstly, the episodes are doing completely different things, and have completely different presentations. "The Enemy Within" uses the transporter malfunction to examin the duality of man, and doesn't address the ethics of the situation in any way. That's going to inform the viewers' reactions, just as bringing Janeway's decisions regarding Tuvix to the forefront of that episode informs the viewers' reactions of that.
Secondly, Tuvix himself would have agreed with Spock - at least, at first. He was initially an active participant in trying to find a way to undo the situation. Over time, though, he changed...and so did Janeway and the Voyager crew. Tuvix is given a name. He's given a job. Janeway calls him an officer and an advisor.
In short, Janeway granted Tuvix personhood...and then unilaterally stripped it away.
To point one, yep, fair. I've unceremoniously dropped "The Enemy Within" into a context it was never intended to be examined from.
To point two, I agree that Janeway was both the source and the termination of Tuvix' personhood, but I don't see the relevancy. What bearing does Tuvix's personhood have on how we describe Janeway's actions, or the discussion about whether those actions were justified?
Well, if he's a person, he has rights...
Ah. Tuvix was a person, EvilKirk was not?
I'm admittedly dancing around EvilKirk a bit, because the episode engages with the two Kirks in such a way that they're treated as a problem to be fixed, rather than a moral dilemma.
The Tom Riker situation is perhaps more fitting in terms of the way the episode itself handles the situation. Of course, that episode also is fairly uncompromising about Will and Tom each being individuals with the right to live...
I think that's an oversimplification of what GP was getting at.
Tuvix was an accident, knew and accepted that fact, and initially was voluntarily assisting in finding a way to undo it. He seems more than capable of grasping, even at that early point in his existence, that undoing the accident means the end of him.
GP made the argument that his demeanor started changing as he got a name, a job, responsibilities etc. All the superficial hallmarks of a "person" in the very limited environment of the ship.
Nobody is saying he wasn't a person from the start, but getting assigned all the trappings of what he saw to be individual persons undoubtedly started him thinking of himself as a person as well instead of just an accident to be corrected.
I'm going to add to that, as this post made me rewatch it as we speak 🙂
The two very first lines Tuvix speaks, when challenge 6 for his identity, are "I am luitenant Tuvok. And I am Neelix."
He really didn't realize he was a person yet - he thought he was two persons.
Had you asked, in that initial time, whether he would like to be split up, I'm sure he would have answered in the positive.
Of course he's allowed to change his mind as realization grows, so the whole thing remains a dicey proposition, but imo it just reinforces the fact that it was Janeway who triggered his (becoming aware of his own) personhood.