We know that the Hippocratic Oath is still in effect in Starfleet, yet Bashir has killed Klingons and fought The Circle. Is the HO suspended for military personel when defending their ship or outpost or the lives of other officers?
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"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
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If you are in war, you would probably have a weapons locker in your medical tents, just in case. Although most enemies would pass over the medical personnel for UN reasons, you would like your med team to be protected anyway.
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I looked at my son, and said, "My god, he's hung like a bear."
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Of course, one episode was explicitly named "Hippocratic Oath" and the Pasteur's dedication plaque quoted that oath, but the heroes don't get to read the episode titles, and the plaque reference could be a historical, outdated one.
Also, Trek doctors get to deal with a creat variety of life, a lot of which is hell-bent on extinguishing the human type of life. There might be far greater ethical dilemmas here than a modern doctor's moral hangover for murdering lots and lots of bacteria or virii to save one human life (or just to make that one life more comfortable).
Timo Saloniemi
Granted, this was told to me by a somewhat unreliable source -- he was an EMT, but he was prone to exaggeration. So ...
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"One's ethics are determined by what we do when no one is looking" Nugget
Star Trek: Gamma Quadrant
Star Trek: Legacy
Read them, rate them, got money, film them....
The Hippocratic Oath still stands, but if someone is threatening your life, or your patient's life, then self defense would not violate that oath.
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I looked at my son, and said, "My god, he's hung like a bear."
"That's the umbillical cord, Mr. Williams."
-Robin Williams, "A Night at the Met" 1986
Saiyanman Benjita's Dragonball Page
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Star Trek: Legacy
IMHO I think you'd find that most military medical personnel have alreay resolved this conflict prior to going to the "field". While Bashir or Crusher may very well feel badly for having to injure or kill someone in the line of duty, it would be out of character for that to disrupt their dedication to duty much (maybe an episode, which I think we saw with Bashir). After all they are committed career military/paramilitary officers as well as health care workers.
As for Star Fleet policy - I would imagine they would stick to the "defensive-only" policy for medical folks, but once again defensive is going to mean something different when dealing with the Borg for example.
As for the EMH - if I were programming it I would prohibit offensive actions and limit defensive ones - it is just a computer program after all.
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TK
In that same ep, Odo says, "Don't count on that Blue uniform to protect you." Suggesting that the blue uni's serve the same function as a red cross does today.
I agree though, that medical personel in SF probably resolve the issue of whether or not they are willing to take a life before they ever go into combat. It's probably not something they have to decide there on the spot.
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"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
Aban's Illustration www.alanfore.com
Or perhaps field medics in dirtbound assignments dress in completely dayglo-blue uniforms while starship medics have the "standard style".
An interesting implication of Odo's statement is that an astrophysicist would also be protected by his uniform. Makes sense in a way, since he would be a "civilian" with limited combat roles - but OTOH, the enemy would gain no advantage from not firing on him, since there would be no corresponding civilians in the enemy ranks so the idea "if you kill my medics, I kill yours, so let's not" would not wash. Not that Klingons would have medics, either, for that matter.
Also, the practice of using blue shirts as noncombatant symbols would clash a bit with the fact that "Arena" showed us a blueshirted Tactical Officer under Kirk... And what about the era of TOS-movie 2-6 uniforms and their between-series variants? It seems obvious that medics wore light green at that time.
I wonder if the Klingons or Cardassians kept a little notebook? "Hmm, let's see, Tuesday, May 3rd 2353. Don't shoot the red ones, except if they have yellow stripes on their collars. Yellow stripes, not orange. The orange ones are their death commandoes until about noon on Friday. Then they revert back to last year's system of medics being shirts and infantry being skins on alternate days. We're expecting news on which days will be which any time now. Oh, and the guys with skirts don't carry those awful multi-barreled sonic weapons any more - it seems the skirt's just a regular dress uniform nowadays. So you can stop aiming at them specifically."
Timo Saloniemi
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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.83 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux
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"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Forum Member Who Shall Be Nameless. 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
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"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
Aban's Illustration www.alanfore.com
"I'm a doctor, don't mind me, Romulans."
"Oh, fair enough."
"Can you direct me to where your weapons are? I just want to through this grenade in there, and blow it up."
"Crumbs. Well, if you weren't a doctor, I'd kill you on the spot. But since you've got the blue suit on, I guess I can't do anything. It's about 100 meters behind that hill."
"Thank you kindly."
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-Bubbles
let me get back on this question..hmmm
[This message has been edited by Charles Capps (edited January 29, 2001).]
[This message has been edited by Ultra Magnus (edited January 28, 2001).]
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Star Trek: Legacy
[This message has been edited by Ultra Magnus (edited January 28, 2001).]
Godamn MP3, I figured it was an e-mail or something that refused to close! What have you done to us, UM?
Er ... wait, I was just in a thread where he posted in FB, and it didn't pop up.
CC -- what up?
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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.83 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Forum Member Who Shall Be Nameless. 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.83 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Forum Member Who Shall Be Nameless. 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
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Star Trek: Legacy
Nothing on the record, you know, just a couple baseball bats, use his head as target practice ... pretend he's a New York Giant for good measure
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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.83 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Forum Member Who Shall Be Nameless. 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
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