In case you don’t recall the NextGen episode mentioned in the thread title, here’s the TVTrropes recap.
Here’s the heart of the dilemma. For the sake of this post, consider that you rather than Jean-Luc Picard are captain of the Enterpirse-D, charged with keeping the Federation out of war if possible. You have a gravely wounded enemy officer on board, who can only be saved by a tissue donation from one of your officers: Lieutenant Worf, a Klingon who hates Romulans because (a) he’s a racist, (b) Romulans killed his parents when he was a child, and (c) he’s a racist. Worf refuses to volunteer his tissue, but will obey an order to do so. Part of your job as captain is to avoid armed conflict with the Romulans if possible, but also to win if that’s a peaceable solution is not feasible; that includes gathering intel on the Romulans, who are not nearly so pacific as you. Buyt you also have an ethical obligation to respect Worf’s [del]human[/del] sentient rights, and Worf honestly believes that he would be betraying his culture and his parents by literally giving a portion of himself to the Romulan – who, incidentally, is just as racist as Worf and has declared that he’d rather die than owe his life to a Klingon.
If the Romulan would rather die than be saved by a Klingon I respect that and let him die. Without that part of the summary I will have to order Worf to save him.
I give Worf the order. He’s a Klingon, he understands obedience to orders, and his honour is not compromised by doing as he is told. The Romulan will get what he’s given and like it, if necessary being enjoined to take his medicine like a man.
Can military personnel today be compelled to donate material from their own bodies against their wishes? I don’t mean for purposes of providing evidence in a criminal investigation; we know they can do that. According to this old thread, soldiers in the Army are strongly encouraged (even pressured) to give blood, but have the right to refuse. I would think in the enlightened Federation, ordering someone to be a tissue donor is a pretty ethically tricky prospect.
I would only order Worf though because I can order him. If it was Guinan who could save him and was being a racist I would let the Romulan die rather than give orders to someone I had no authority over or force to have surgery perfomed on against her will.
Force someone to undergo a medical procedure they have explicitly refused (with fully informed consent)? No thanks. So I guess the first one becomes moot.
I’d cover my ass as much as possible. Get the Romulan’s refusal to accept the procedure as well-documented as I possibly can. Make sure that the Romulan’s superiors know of his refusal. Ask his superiors if they want to order him to accept the procedure, and give them the opportunity to suggest any other courses of action. If, after all of that, the Romulan still refuses the procedure, that’s the end of the decision tree: I won’t save his life against his will. If, however, the Romulan accepts the procedure (whether under orders or otherwise), then I apply escalating pressure on Worf, up to and including a direct order if needed, until he cooperates.
I’m gonna dissent here and say that you shouldn’t force people to undergo medical procedures. Would you order Worf to participate in a bone marrow transplant? Kidney transplant?
That said, I barely remember the episode and don’t know how much the tissue extraction could be considered a medical procedure. I imagine there’d be some blinky lightbulbs on the end of magic wands. Still, the principle stands.
Rational choice of action, but just asking for trouble. The Romulan commander was merely going to say “You want so badly to save my man’s life, get your ass to the agreed-upon rendezvous coordinates at maximum warp. We know far more about Romulan medicine than your doctors.”
Nor would i separate the hulls, leaving Riker (or, more likely, Worf or Data) in command of the saucer section to continue the search for Geordi while the battle section goes to the rendezvous. Too many ways for that to go south. If nothing else, bringing just the battle section is going to scream “We’re spoiling for a fight!” to the Romulans, who are looking for an excuse to start a war.
Everyone’s favorite beautiful-but-not-generally-all-that-sexy-except-when-costumed-as-a-gangster’s-moll-on-the-holodeck redhead assured everyone favorite supposedly-badass-but-generally-laughably-ineffectual-until-he-got-to-the-space-station-then-wow! racist that the procedure was, from his POV, trivial, both painless and safe.
That’s just the way this flavor of Trek rolls with ethical decisions. Instead:
Load him into the transporter, and fix the damage in there. That thing works at a quantum level, y’know.
Dematerialize him into the transporter pattern buffer, and keep him preserved until rendez-vous. Spock did it with coffee in an early novel, and Scotty did it to himself. Seems like a typical medical procedure to have handy.
Download the Romulan’s brain into a spare positronic net, and up load it into a copy of the Romulan recreated from data stored from his last transport. Like they did to Dr. Pulaski, and Captain Picard when he beamed his energy into space.
They don’t do these things, because it conflicts with their ethics, as defined by the program. So they likewise can’t find a simple solution to this dilemma. As they said on the USENET on AD&D – There’s no saving throw vs. plot device.
Agreed. Worf stood on Klingon “honor” by refusing to donate; but, being a good Federation Officer, gave his Captain an honorable “out” by letting Picard know that he would donate, if so ordered. If Worf never intended to donate, he could have simply kept his mouth shut and let Picard assume that he (Worf) would never donate, under any circumstances.
So, Picard should have given the order; Worf’s honor would be satisfied, as he was obeying a direct order from his commanding officer, and the Romulan would still be alive (if he could be similarly encouraged to take the medicine).