It certainly didn't live up to Federation ideals.

But then again Sisko should be a war criminal for using Biogenic weapons.

If you want to see someone do the ethically correct thing 10/10, even in the face of Starfleet failing to, Jean Luc is your captain.

I'll bet Janeway and Sisko's music playlists are a lot more fun though.

Tuvix is literally just a Trolley Problem scenario with a fancy costume. No more, no less. And the whole point of the trolley problem is that there isn’t any single “correct” answer.

There is an out of control trolley. You can’t stop it. On the trolley’s current track, there are two people. If you do nothing, they will die when the trolley hits them. But you’re at a track switch, and can divert the trolley to an alternate track. On that second track, there is one person who will die if the trolley hits them. Do you pull the lever? If you pull the lever, are you murdering the one? If you don’t pull the lever, are you complicit in the deaths of the two?

In this case, the trolley is the transporter accident; Janeway has the ability to pull the lever and reverse the accident. If she chooses not to, she is essentially refusing to pull the lever, thereby condemning the two people on the first track to die. But if she reverses the accident, she is pulling the lever and killing the one.

Janeway decided the answer to “should you pull the lever” was “yes”. She pulled the lever, saved the two, and killed the one. Sure, you could argue that pulling the lever is murdering the one. But if you sit by and do nothing, aren’t you willfully (maybe even maliciously) negligent? After all, you have the opportunity to save the lives of two, while minimizing damage to only one person.

Philosophers will try to change the trolley problem to fit different scenarios. What if it’s a bunch of convicted felons on the first track, and an innocent child on the second track? What if it’s a bunch of your friends and family on the first track, and your worst enemy on the second? What if, what if, what if… But the base question is always the same; Do you choose to do nothing and let many die, or actively kill the one? What is the tipping point where your decision changes?

Yeah, it separated the wheat from the chaff. Janeway did nothing wrong.

JANEWAY DID NOTHING WRONG

Sucks to be Tuvix, nobody should be judged on the circumstances of one's creation.

But Tuvok and Neelix deserved to live, too.

If you have the ability to help them, you have the responsibility to help them.

I’m in camp Janeway did nothing wrong, but some things like the doctor in SNW keeping his daughter in the buffer raise questions about just exactly what is being stored and rematerialized. Maybe there was a way to use transporter magic to solve the trolley problem, but the needs of the many and two crew members were already MIA

This was one of those episodes i never really gave another thought until reading about it on the internet.

I think the controversy of Janeway's choice is largely due to the show's failure to address the orchid of it all.

As I see it, Tuvix is not "Tuvok + Neelix," but also isn't "something new." I maintain that Tuvix is primarily the orchid, which has subsumed the essence and personalities of two Voyager crew members and is asserting itself on board the ship.

All it would have taken is for Janeway to have maintained (or be convinced by another) that this was the case, and it would be the obvious choice to split them back up.

Of course that would negate the tension of the episode, but it could be left as "not everyone on board agrees that this is who/what Tuvix is, but Janeway believes it so that's why her decision isn't immoral." We could have the same kinds of "was Janeway wrong?" debates, but some of the rough edges would be smoothed out, I think.

New Trolley Problem: Would you cold-bloodedly murder a living being to save two of your buddies from certain death? Jameway say absolutely I do.

Best solution:

1: Sedate Tuvix. He must not be conscious for the next steps.

2: Make a transporter clone of him (like Riker/Boimler)

3: Separate one of the Tuvixes into Tuvok/Neelix, leave the other as Tuvix

Everyone wins!

I would have been on Tuvix's side if they were cuter but I still see their face in my nightmares.

Dude I wish I could be split into two people. I reeally want the Neelix part of me gone.

The question to me isn't whether Janeway murder Tuvix, but was the murder of Tuvix justifiable. In Star Trek 2 Spock famously states "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" in TNG Thine Own Self Troy learns that sometimes an officer must order a crew member into a situation where they know that person isn't coming back.

Does the situation Voyager was in and the creation of Tuvix represent the same level of danger "to the many" that say an imminent warp core breach does?