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Episode
533
Nothing Human
Meet Crell Moset: a charming, brilliant scientist who is conjured up in the holodeck by Voyager’s Doctor to assist with the complicated task of removing an alien parasite from B’Elanna. She isn’t pleased at all to see this new Cardassian character on board. Making matters worse, the real Crell’s history taints his valuable research leading B’Elanna to prefer death over complicity. Nothing Human goes into the Mission Log.
Hosted by John Champion and Holly Amos
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The central moral conflict in this episode is real, and complicated, and familiar to many, but I largely agree with John on this. You can hate the source of the knowledge (and in this case, you should) but once the knowledge is attained, unless the knowledge itself is evil (like some magical chemical you could use to eliminate all life on a planet in minutes), the evil has already passed.
If you insist on never using any medical knowledge that was attained through less than savory methods, to be intellectually honest, you need to scour through all medical knowledge and eliminate EVERYTHING whose sources you don’t approve of, and ALL developments that built on them as “fruits of the poisonous tree.” Which means, if you disagree with animal testing, you would have to ignore almost all of today’s modern medicine.
But on a more practical level, if it’s about the fear of legitimizing the torture of Crell Moset’s victims, consider what you’re doing if you refuse to use the knowledge they suffered and died for, willingly or not. If you refuse to use that knowledge, then they’ve now literally died for nothing. Empty deaths.
Condemn the source, by all means. And delete the holographic representation of the alien monster doctor if it makes you feel better. But the only way to honor the victims is to preserve the information that was gleaned by their experiences. Otherwise, to paraphrase Harry Potter, you disgrace them. Otherwise, they died for nothing. Otherwise, their deaths will remain empty.
This is just perfectly said, Ryan. You bring even more nuance to a difficult conversation, and in the end, if it comes down to making the best out of an already terrible history, then we have to honor the lives that were lost by sparing as many in the present as possible.
Hey people!!!!!
Good mood and good luck to everyone!!!!!