The Ethics of Star Trek: Autonomy and Society

“The Mariposan government faced a stark choice: violate the rights of two...” Con indicates that it is just one pair of people that is being violated for the purposes of continuing the colony. Pro is not so quick to end the chain there and call that the actual number, though. The purpose of stealing their (Riker’s and Pulaski’s) material was to clone them. This would mean it’s going to be more than just one pair that has their bodies violated in such a fashion, presumably with the same opinion. Ultimately, the “Founding” line of genetic stock will fade into extinction, all that will be remaining is an entire colony of Rikers and Pulaskis, and we well know of their stance on the matter. If the purpose of government is to protect its citizens or continue its citizen’s will, thinking into the future should be practiced. Applying just a small bit of projection to this situation, it demonstrates that the cloning of the pair isn’t solving the problem to protect the citizenry by correcting genetic fade, it is a delaying of the inevitable. The Riker and Pulaski clones will be subject to the same genetic fade, and the Mariposan Clone colony would presumably end the minute the last clone from the “Founders” passed. Now the citizens of such a government in question will quite literally be comprised of nothing but clones that were adverse to cloning to begin with! That isn’t protecting their citizenry, that is a slow march to the gallows. Genetic fade would renew itself in the next batch of clones, leaving only those who found the idea reprehensible at its core in the wake. Secondly, the current clones from the Mariposan adopted cloning and the subsequent moral complications from necessity, not as an adaptation of culture. They didn’t leave Earth with the intent to create an entire collection of clones to perpetuate life in deep space, were I to understand the Prime Minister correctly. To call that their culture I think gives short shrift to the intent for which they left Terra. 'Lesser of two evils,' Utilitarianism is a great method of deciding what to do for once instance or moral ambiguity when choices are limited. However there is something hiding in the phrase “choosing the lesser of two evils” when it comes to these clones. There are a lot more choices on the table than 2. The Mariposa clones were not sterile. They were opting to steal genes and clone them out of convenience, not necessity. In the Prime Minister’s explanation to Pulaski, Riker, and Picard, he explains that the colony suppressed the natural inclination to sexual activity with drugs, and that after generations were lab grown, the drugs were no longer needed: the idea of sex became ‘repugnant’. Lesser evils shouldn’t hinge on such fickle personal preference. The health of the society could have easily been maintained if the clone colony was willing to accept the fact that cloning, the stop gap, temporary solution that it was, simply didn’t have to be done anymore. Shouldn’t that have been the ultimate goal to begin with? With Starfleet now knowing of this colony’s existence, trade and settlers could be established, and new genetic stock, those in line with the original intent of a culture, that which the Founder’s had, could finally be fulfilled.