Augments in Starfleet. Discussion point.

[Dan Gurden]

OK, so we have clearly establish on-screen that the UFP does not tolerate Genetic Modification, stemming from the 20th century events surrounding Khan and the 22nd century work of Dr Noonian Soong, and that as a result any such augmented personnel are barred from service in Starfleet or Medicine, without special dispensation. (Although clearly Section 31 does not seem to mind).

We are clearly advised on screen that such augmentation is illegal, and performed on independant planets (whether they be colonial or another species). We are also advised that the procedure is risky that not all people who are augmented can go on to lead normal lives, and that a significant percentage develop 'traits' that border on dangerous psychosis.

However all such augmentation seems to apply to humans alone. Does this mean the UFP is holding a double standard of law to humanity? We see this in the independant human genome colony, happily functioning outside the borders of the UFP (Although arguably this is not genetic augmentation, its genetic management), but we see it more clearly in the Angosian Super Soldiers. Where Genetic Modification is used to create stronger, better soldiers.

At the end of Voyager we saw that 2 former Borg Drones were well integrated into Starfleet operations. Seven of Nine was a senior member of the crew, although still technically idependant, but Iched (one of the Borg kids) is clearly shown passing his Academy entrance exam with a view to serving in Starfleet, not to mention Picard as a third former drone in Starfleet... I believe there is an arguement that these former drones may also apply as 'Augments', and surely this would mean that the Bias against Genetic augments should still apply. But clearly they do not.

Now I can see why the Angosian soldiers are barred what with their uncontrolled bloodlust, but what is the general concensus here, is this a stupid ruling that shows some UFP intolerance and borders on racism and maybe due for review in a post Voyager world (especially in the novels where the fleet has been massively depleted by Borg attacks).

Not that I am advocating species modification, just that the needs of the UFP may require changes in the seemingly conflicting opinions about the genetic enhanced? Or is that just a slippery slope, or one that we seem to already be on?

[The Tatterdemalion King]

It was never established that the Angosians even joined the Federation.

[Thakowsaizmu]

Bashir was an augment.

[Owen E Oulton]

Bashir's father was sent to prison for having him resequenced and Bashir was very nearly thrown out of Starfleet... Your point?

[Dan Gurden]

Bashir was an augment.

You are quite right... thus the sentence;
"...without special dispensation. (Although clearly Section 31 does not seem to mind)."

In short the tone of the episode made it clear that the most serious of crimes was considered to be Bashir's father who had consented to having the augmentation proceedures on his son. It seemed relatively clear that Bashir would have been considered as a citizen in his own right as an augment, but that HIS crime was one of fraudulantly signing up for Starfleet Medical, both of which are expressly forbidden by the UFP...

So OK, the criminality lies with the parents (or responsible adults), one assumes that as long as they dont fall into the institutionalised 'crazies' or get caught trying to sign up for Starfleet that the rest lead productive lives as Scientists or PE teachers... Actually shouldn't 'teachers' be on that list of barred professions if they have to have a list?

(OK, so we know the real-reason is 'because the script said so, and once you start picking at the threads...)

[Dan Gurden]

It was never established that the Angosians even joined the Federation.

True dat, but then neither are the Klingons, Ferengi and even the Delta Quadrant Brunali, all of which are now established with at least 1 member of their species in Starfleet...

And in the meantime, we saw that at the height of the Dominion War Starfleet seriously considered getting into bed with the Son'a, who were drug manufacturers (Ketracel White), Slave owners (Tarlac and Ellora species) and used banned subspace weapons... The Angosian Super Soldiers and their plight of being treated fairly after their war ended and they couldn't be reinstated due to heightened aggression makes them out to be (comparably) a significantly improved ally.

[Aldaron]

I folded, spindled and mutilated the Augment / Khan thing for my campaign. In mine, the surviving Augments left the region the Federation would one day hold, and went underground. They developed advanced technologies with their augmented smarts and pursued an agenda that was unknown and unknowable to most.

But they had to stay hidden, avoid contact with (first) Earth and (later) the Federation, because their numbers were few. Over the hundreds of years from the 22nd to 24th centuries, they grew in numbers and power, but still went about hidden, deliberately fostering an aura of mystery, encouraging the rest of the galaxy to view them as enigmatic and dangerous, even allowing the "common wisdom" to develop that they required special environment suits to survive in "normal" conditions.

They became, of course, the Breen.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

The intention behind it is likely the source of the prohibition. Creating a 'genetically superior' being would, one way or another, be an attempt to create a caste system: Either they are designed to rule over the less-endowed via their advantage, competing with them instead of co-existing peacefully, or they are to serve their creators. Everything that was said in Measure of a Man about Data is equally valid here.

Secondarily, and perhaps more importantly, the act of actively experimenting on sentient beings, even if you're just 'doing it for kicks' like Kingsley creates an actual exploitative political relationship. The doctor rules over the patient, and the results of the doctor's meddling removes the ability to be absolutely sure that consent is given, or that the original giver of the consent even exists (in the case of extreme metal alteration)—and then we're back at the first question, which is the intent of that consent!

[JALU3]

I think the biggest thing about why Drones are allowed in Starfleet, is because their assimilation is something that they did not welcome, that was not consented to. So the fact that they were once Borg is something that they could not control as much as what race, or species they were born into. Now for those who consented to augmentation/genetic alteration it is seen as a different, as they purposely engaged in what is deemed as an illegal act.

Now the reason for it remaining illegal is interesting, and can use some delving into. There is the aspect of historical fear of repeating a situation where it creates a new sub-species or different class, and as has been discussed here this can lead to certain social problems.

Now is it possible that one can have a culture where genetic alteration can be done and it not lead to those social problems?

For instance not all genetic alteration need lead to a creation of a super-race.
For instance in the episode with LTCMDR La Forge & the crashed Romulan, there was a discussion of how due to genetic issues which lead to La Forge being born blind his birth would have been terminated/aborted before he had a chance to be born. In this instance the genetic issue that lead to the child, future La Forge, being born blind could have been corrected in the womb. There are also other genetic birth defects that can be corrected through genetic alteration.

At what point does genetic alteration to correct an illness or abnormality go beyond what is considered medically ethical?
For instance some cultures, or groups of individuals, may see the use of certain drugs or medical practices as being something that they would not consent to use or have done to them.

Now Star Trek has delved into Medical Ethics realm before, primarily in its discussion about suicide and euthanasia.

[Dan Gurden]

I think the biggest thing about why Drones are allowed in Starfleet, is because their assimilation is something that they did not welcome, that was not consented to. So the fact that they were once Borg is something that they could not control as much as what race, or species they were born into. Now for those who consented to augmentation/genetic alteration it is seen as a different, as they purposely engaged in what is deemed as an illegal act.

While that may be true for the Angosian Super Soldiers (and Captain America), I am not sure that this applies with the Augments who were altered in childhood... In Bashirs case he makes it clear that he didn't consent and that he didn't even know what was going on, and when he was smart enough to realise his personal ethical code began formulation (hence the 'death of Jules and creation of Julian comment)...

I think that Embryo alteration (but not augmentation) seems to be OK. Bashir didn't seem too bothered by the idea of helping Dax and Worf out despite the prospect that as an augment himself such genetic meddling to help a Trill/Klingon conception and birth might be under scrutiny.

I am also suspecting that the Borg might differe in that their augmentation is technological...

NOTE. Interestingly your Angosian NPC and some of the background I did in the Law ENforcement book was what sparked all this thinking...

[The Tatterdemalion King]

I think the biggest thing about why Drones are allowed in Starfleet, is because their assimilation is something that they did not welcome, that was not consented to. So the fact that they were once Borg is something that they could not control as much as what race, or species they were born into. Now for those who consented to augmentation/genetic alteration it is seen as a different, as they purposely engaged in what is deemed as an illegal act.

Former drones aren't necessarily automatically better at everything compared to humans, either. The 'Descent' drones seemed pretty useless at times.

For instance not all genetic alteration need lead to a creation of a super-race.
For instance in the episode with LTCMDR La Forge & the crashed Romulan, there was a discussion of how due to genetic issues which lead to La Forge being born blind his birth would have been terminated/aborted before he had a chance to be born. In this instance the genetic issue that lead to the child, future La Forge, being born blind could have been corrected in the womb. There are also other genetic birth defects that can be corrected through genetic alteration.

I suspect that it could've been fixed, but due to his parent's Starfleet careers it went unnoticed while they were on duty. Alternately, something might have caused it while he was in the womb; weird radiation or suchlike.

The only genetic modification we've actually seen prohibited is of otherwise healthy, functional children for the purposes of out-competing their fellows. If Bashir hadn't accidentally-on-purpose mistook the fibre and the nerve (undercutting his social climbing), the deal his father cut might not have been on the table. Hell, Soong had to move to an isolated colony to continue his work; maybe aspects of what he was doing was also either prohibited or at least raising legal concerns in the Federation.

[Tricky]

Funny, was just commenting on the FED's persecution of Augments on the more human thread.

Since it first popped up, I thought it was an anomaly: the FED accepts EVERYONE; former enemies, time displaced people, races where a bug in someone's tummy controls them, artificial lifeforms and even zombielike cyborgs. So how could they not accept people where were geneticly 'better'?

But we have seen that some gene tinkering is accepted: K'Ehleyr stated that she was possible with it, and didn't Tom and Belanna need it too? So, I guess if you're doing to help improve life, but then why was Bashir's dad a criminal? He was only making sure his son's life was better; perhaps it was just the WAY he did it, going to some independant planet instead of FED doctors?

But that takes me back to why Augments are bared from service? Sure, most Augments seem to be a bit overly agressive/dominant/megalomaniacal, but then so are some humans. But the Federation, or at least SF, has apparently found ways to screen that out, or to at least keep it in check. Or take Worf; most Klingons have temperments that match those of pretty much all the Augments we've seen, yet Worf (raised and eductated by humans) seems to be in total control of his "nature". Shouldn't an Augmented FED citizen have the same opportunity to do the same?

Of course, on the other hand, if you start letting Augments serve, and the procedure becomes commonplace, you would probably see "pure strain humans" disappear in a few hundred years: if you wanted your child to succeed in a world where everyone was as a gene tweaked genius with an athletes body, you'd have to tweak his genes too. Then you have less Star Trek and more Gattaca, and the aforementioned caste system.

As a story element, an Augment trying to serve in SF, or stay in SF if he was discovered, would be a great allegory to the current state of GLBT persons in our American military.

[Dan Gurden]

It gets worse... Go back to series 2 TNG, and you see the Darwin colony (A Federation Science Station) that are augmenting children to introduce Psi. And along the way augment their antibodies to a level that goes external and accelerate ages/kills any potential threats (ie; all non augmented life)...

NJow admittedly the cock-up is simply because this was written and produced before the writers decided on canon, but it stands as a glaring absolute error. But that leaves us to work out how it all fits in...

[Owen E Oulton]

Well, the life-extension augmentation aside, it WAS established that pre-natal tinkering to fix medical problems before birth was allowed, so Kehleyr and Miral Torres-Paris are well within the pale, as is Spock (the old LP Inside Star Trek featured Gene Roddenberry "interviewing" Sarek, which statedthat some engineering was needed for Spock to be born healthy, thhis requirement being confirmed in Enterprise, where Trip and T'Pol's daughter dies without such intervention).

[The Tatterdemalion King]

So how could they not accept people where were geneticly 'better'? [...] So, I guess if you're doing to help improve life, but then why was Bashir's dad a criminal?

Frankly, because the alterations "improving" life that way is subtly telling everybody else that they suck. Remember, the Federation is a post-monetary socialist society. The oft-stated credo is that 'we work to better ourselves and our world,' not 'we work to buy an upgrade because we're conditioned to believe we can't change ourselves without professional help' like most people today. It's a form of self-hatred and classism inherent in transhumanist thinking right now. The arrogance (or, in Bashir's family's case, the envy and fear) is implicit in the act, and the assumption of 'better-ness.' Frankly, the Trill and Vulcans are already better-endowed than humans, but they aren't seen as naturally better suited to controlling those with shorter lifespans and less experience.

But that takes me back to why Augments are bared from service? Sure, most Augments seem to be a bit overly agressive/dominant/megalomaniacal, but then so are some humans.

And with extensive counseling, non-altered humans may get over it. But when talking to the genetically altered, even the terminology is prejudicial—'Augment' is definitely a term left over from 20th and 21st century neo-fascism.