All my information comes from the shows and movies and there are spoilers here<warning
Is the treatment of the augments immoral? The Federation still considers augments dangerous by their mere existence apparently because they have strength and intellect above human average, this is patently absurd in a setting where there are thousands of species living together some of whom are vastly stronger or smarter. Julian Bashir has to live under a false identity to hide the fact he is a “augment”(he was created in illegal genetic experiments removed in time from the original augments)) and if he wasn’t he would not have a career and might be forced to live in a institution. How does this amount to anything other than a severe societal prejudice? I like that as it gives even the Fed flaws, but aside from on DS9 everyone else takes it for granted that augments are EVIL and must be stopped!
On Enterprise the augments(from frozen embryos from the time of the Augment Wars) were raised by Arik Soong on a distant uninhabited planet. They only hijacked the Klingon ship to get off world after Arik was arrested and could no longer drop off supplies. I think we even see a augment who has problems with using violence.
On TOS Khan and his people were afraid of being discovered as war criminals and augments, apparently for good reason as when their plan to take over the ship is stopped Kirk strands them on a rock along with the augment lover McGivers. How many of those augments were actual war criminals? Who knows and Kirk doesn’t care, toss em all out! Note Kirk considers this merciful.
I never understood why the Federation even had a ban on genetic engineering in the first place. I can see why Earth would, given the Eugenics Wars, but did is it so taboo among all the other species. The Vulcans in particular probally would’ve been practicing some form of eugenics since the time of Surak. Then again Star Trek was always really vauge on Earth’s relationship with the Federation. Usually (especially in TOS) the Earth doesn’t seem to have any seperate identity or government from the United Federation of Planets. In fact I can’t recall any Earth-specific government officials even being mentioned except on Enterprise.
Well, Bashir’s not evil, so all augments CAN’T be inherently bad. Looks to me like Earth was so traumatized by the Eugenics Wars that humans picked up a nasty (if understandable) prejudice against the genetically enhanced, and have managed through political pressure to twist Federation law into accommodating it. Which was a great thing about DS9: it showed the Federation (while better than the alternatives) wasn’t perfect my any means.
I forget: were there other augments that were only unfrozen when Kirk exiled Khan? Because, if not, I disagree with grude’s characterization of Kirk’s actions. He originally did try to give Khan a second chance. He tried to avoid any prejudice. But Khan tried to take over his ship. And his fellow augments all allied themselves with him, making them just as guilty.
Now, if Kirk punished some who sat out of the attempted takeover, or who didn’t have a choice, perhaps you have a case. But, even then, they are war criminals from the past, and Kirk may have just assumed there was good reason for that designation, and that it wasn’t just because of prejudice.
I really don’t think Augments were considered a horrible thing in and of themselves until DS9 (which, remember, was written before Enterprise). I don’t remember it coming up at all in TNG, or ever again in TOS.
The way I’ve always understood it is that the Federation is merely an outgrowing of Earth’s own government. This seemed to be confirmed by the end of Enterprise, when the government coalesced into a United Federation of Earth. It seems that other species just sort of opted into Earth’s government, really, even those that were “founding members.” I mean, what is different about the United Federation of Earth and the United Federation of Planets?
IIRC, the reason for the ban was that the technology usually resulted in either severely disabled people (like the other augments we see in DS9) or psychopaths (KHAN!!!). Obviously this wasn’t always the case, Bashir is neither a pscyopath or mentally ill, but he seems to have been a minority case.
(Is it like Star Trek month at SDMB for some reason? I think I’ve found myself participating in more Trek threads in the last two weeks then I have in the previous five years)
I’m pretty sure the disabilities of the ‘Jack Pack’ and other genetically altered people were not an inherent consequence of DNA resequencing, but rather a consequence of its illegality post-Augments (which, I believe, only refers to Khan and his lot, as well as the Klingons that were infected the Augment virus created from the same DNA data as used in the Augments) and subsequent lack of quality control. The Bashirs were lucky enough to find someone who was competent and conscientious, so Julian got a good set of new genes, and continued care.