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star trek - Word of God on Tuvix's Murder


The Star Trek Voyager episode "Tuvix" dealt with a transporter accident that took two people and merged them into a unique lifeform, shown to be sentient and sapient and healthy. At the end, he expressed a self-preservation instinct and "[did not] want to die". The Emergency Medical Holographic program was the only one that voiced a negative stance to Tuvix's murder, invoking the Hippocratic Oath of non-harm and refused to personally perform the procedure. Captain Janeway did instead.



The entire plot revolved around the ethics and morality of the situation, to which end that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... Or the one, as the case may be. Obviously Tuvok would have laid his life down for two others. Neelix much less likely based on his attitudes towards death in previous episodes. Spock, the origination of the quote, laid down his life Voluntarily. Tuvix, regardless of logic or anything, explicitly would not commit suicide for this, and no person should ever be punished for not being suicidal. But I digress. The point of the episode was clearly to put the moral and ethical dilemma in the Audience's hands, and was ambiguous in which action was the right one. It was not meant to dictate how the audience should feel, but provoke discussion.


My question though, is how did the writing staff or cast decide what was the right thing? Were they themselves conflicted? Any word of God statements? Did anyone think Janeway committed murder?




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