are replicants people?

[calvin]

ok, so i just watched the episode titled "Whispers" (S02E14), and i'm rather disturbed by the conclusion.

aren't replicants people too? they're sentient/sapient and show the capacity for emotions and suffering.

the replicant the Paradas made of Chief O'Brien showed all the signs of being self-aware. he didn't know he was a replicant, and he didn't actually do anything to harm anyone. so they basically ended the episode with the cold-blooded murder of an innocent person.

i think the replicant had the same right to live as everyone else. just because you were cloned or conceived of in vitro doesn't mean it's alright to kill you.

the rational/ethical thing to do would have been to confront the replicant and explain to him what was going on. not conspire against him and work behind his back, or persecute him for a crime he has not yet committed. they didn't even give him a choice. they just killed him once they found the real o'brien.

i'm rather disappointed with the ending the show makers came up with--with no regard to the ethical implications of such cruel actions. it's really a stark contrast to TNG, on which the senior staff of the Enterprise-D always demonstrated enlightened ethical standards. even when they erred in their judgment, the show always confronted the crew with the moral implications of their actions.

[Lord Borg]

Really depends on how you look at the process, in this case, he was a person, because it was programed to believe as such. The believe was so much, in fact, that this replicant thought it was Miles O'brien. Had it been able to forfill its original purpose there's no telling how it would have thought of itself. Unfortunately, it couldn't have been reasoned with, it was created with the sole purpose of assassinating an assigned target, there was no "You're gonna have to trust me when I say...you are not Miles O'Brien"

Also, wasn't it shot because it was aiming a phaser at several people? Again, the purpose behind this thing, was to kill someone anyways, with some unknown means or situation 'activating' the persona that'd kill the assigned target.

[calvin]

don't phasers have a "stun" setting?

and i don't think you can create an artificial intelligence that can act sentient without actually making it sentient.

and had they actually tried to reason with him and failed, then perhaps this ending could be attributed to the imperfect world we live in sometimes leaving us with no ethical options.

but the fact of the matter is, they didn't try. instead, they subjected the replicant to a kafka-esque nightmare. one in which he has committed no crime but is persecuted as a criminal by everyone around him. and he's given no clues as to what he did wrong, or given any opportunity to rectify the situation.

and to draw another comparison with TNG:
there was an episode in season 4, i believe, entitled "the minds eye"--or something like that. in this particular episode, Geordi La Forge is abducted by the Romulans who brainwash him.

Geordi returned to the Enterprise-D with no memory of the event. he acted completely normal and was give false memories of what happened. the only thing that was different about him was the fact that he had been subliminal;y programmed to assassinate a klingon general aboard the enterprise when given a specific trigger.

the purpose of this Romulan scheme was pretty much the same as the Paradas. but Geordi was simply stopped at the last minute (without the use of deadly force). once it was revealed what had happened, the crew helped Geordi recover his memories and to gradually undo the damage that had been done to him.

if worse comes to worst, they could have just confined the replicant to a jail cell until they could figure out a way to deactivate his trigger. but most importantly, they should have told him why they were so suspicious around him rather than simply alienating him and keeping him in the dark.

it was their unwise decision to treat him as a criminal/monster, rather than a sentient being who deserves the same rights and respect as everyone else, that eventually drove him to extremes. if the original Miles O'Brien had been in his place, he probably would have acted the exact same way. so it was the stupidity of everyone around him that finally pushed him over the edge and made him pick up his phaser. he was fearing for his life.

i mean, if you were in his situation, wouldn't you have done the same?

[Lord Borg]

It depends on who made the phaser, some alien species do not have a 'stun' setting for their weaponry. You also need to remember, the people that killed him, were protecting someone important to them. Another thing to remember, is what some people percive as ethics and what they have on the Value of life. Starfleet and the UFP have a higher value and regard to life then most others seen on the various series do. You should also look at it from the POV of the people that know and love Miles O'Brien, here is another being that looks, thinks, feels and acts like Miles, same memories (for the most part) and all, but it's not Miles.

The episode with LaForge is a differnt situation, that was the real LaForge that was brainwashed, not...programed, as this replicant was, to kill.

With regards to how they treated him, he was a criminal, the trigger was unknown, it could have been a sound, a smell, a taste, a word, etc... The whole reason behind the creation of the replicant, the whole reason it was thought of and existed was to kill someone in the negotiations It wasn't someone that could be changed or altered, it was simply a part of him, no matter what they had tried to do..