Star Trek: Voyager saw Kathryn Janeway handle the Tuvix-situation correctly.
To have this debate, take out any arguments that fall on the writers. No, “well they could’ve written it differently”. The episode is in the can, it exists as is and you can’t change it. Assume they couldn’t. Whatever defense or point of contention, just assume the ship and crew couldn’t do that thing. So with that in mind, when it comes to Tuvix, Kathryn Janeway didn’t murder anyone. She merely rescued two of her crew. Too often people want to forget that aspect of the episode when talking about Tuvix and the events at hand. Too many people want to say that Janeway murdered Tuvix for no reason, not that she ended a sentient life to save two of her crew. Saying she murdered Tuvix is not true at all, not in the definition of the word murdered, nor in the essence of logic.
Part of the reason people say this is to further a false narrative that Janeway is somehow an evil person, or that she’s incompetent. Inaccurate accusations are levied against her for being a war criminal often from people who misrepresent facts of the series. The argument surrounding Tuvix is no different.
Janeway was trapped on the desert island of space, alone with just her crew, against forces she shouldn’t understand. She did the best she could and in any real-life instance would be rewarded for it. She never committed a war crime because 1. Starfleet was never at war, and 2. War crimes are not universal and cannot be copy-pasted onto any instance.
So why are we talking about Tuvix you might ask? Well, SyFy Wire did a recap of the episode and the host seemed to have some strong feelings about Tuvix as a character and hated the way things shook out. So that inspired this defense of Janeway and her decision-making skills with regards to Tuvix.
It should be noted that the whole “try and save all three” argument is pretty hollow, considering most transporter issues are often malfunctions that just happen with no real rhyme or reason. So splitting everyone like Thomas and William Riker just isn’t logical. The host does blame the writing for the issue with Tuvix, however, so he at least isn’t dog-piling on Janeway. So kudos.
Here are the reasons why Janeway was in the right about her decision to handle Tuvix.
To be born is to die.
Firstly for Tuvix to die, he would have had to been born. Not merged through an accident, but created from scratch and developed into a sentient being. Tuvix was not “his own being”, but parts of Tuvok and Neelix. Nothing about Tuvix was original, just a weird combination of parts from two other wholly unique individuals.
Just because he was different from them in some ways, does not mean he was ever uniquely born or created. He didn’t develop his own personality but was constantly clashing against two identities that could not coexist. His love for both Kess and T’Pel proves this. Neelix never met T’Pel and Tuvok had no interest in Kes. If he were a solely unique individual, he would feel nothing for either woman. Why would he? He’d be unique. He’d have no memories of anyone else’s life. He would, like all life, start from the beginning.
Tuvix never learned to read, walk, or talk. He never had to earn his place in the universe. Even the EMH doctor evolved, forming his own memories and personality. He had a creator. A person he could call father. He was unique and original in a way that redefined the idea of a soul. Beyond that, he learned to feel. To express himself. He developed into a person with a unique personality.
Tuvix was an accident in the most literal definition. There was no intent there. No one was trying to merge two beings together.
This isn’t like when people have sex and have an unplanned pregnancy. When you have sex, you accept that one of the consequences could be an unplanned pregnancy. No one ever sits down to have a slab of ribs and nine-months later spits out a baby for some reason.
Same thing for computer intelligence. It’s not too often you hear a story about a guy developing a rope and pulley system that can deliver snacks from the kitchen to the living room, only to accidentally create a learning, sentient computer program.
The Doctor didn’t just come out fully cooked. Tuvix did. There was no point of conception, no Eureka moment where the creation is finished. No intent to create life and no biological reason why it should exist in the first place. Tuvix, for all intent and purposes, was an abomination.
Tuvix’s birth killed two men.
Secondly, Tuvix’s creation ended two crew members. Two crew members who were unique themselves, who had their own lives and their own hopes and dreams. Two crew members who didn’t ask for, nor gave consent to undergo such a dramatic metamorphosis. Why do they get tossed aside so fast when Tuvix is discussed? Do Neelix and Tuvok not matter? Fans who argue for Tuvix sure seem to forget that for Tuvix to exist, two people had to die. After all, if you subscribe to a notion that Tuvix is unique, that means he’s different from Neelix and Tuvok in every way, which means that Tuvix is himself walking death.
Tuvix doesn’t get to have a pass because he’s more likable. His entire existence isn’t just a spit in the face of life itself but also the notion that it’s ok to end two lives to create a third. Neelix and Tuvok never gave their consent to be snuffed out in a moment. They certainly had no idea such a merger could ever happen. Janeway’s duty isn’t just to Tuvix, but the men Tuvix ended at the point of creation.
Neelix and Tuvok stopped being individuals. In an era of life where so many people harp on and on and on about the right to choose their own destiny and how they get to represent themselves, you’d think fans would be more sympathetic that Tuvok and Neelix don’t get to share their thoughts and feelings anymore. That their lives are now less than Tuvix’s. That Tuvix gets to live while they have to die.
Janeway had the right to hold Tuvix accountable for the metaphorical death of her men, and no amount of moaning and crying would ever change that. No one tried to merge Neelix and Tuvok into one being. Tuvix’s point of creation resulted in the deaths of two men’s singular conscious. Left to no longer be able to give consent to anything. All so Tuvix can be.
Tuvix’s existence outright snuffs Neelix and Tuvok from existence. There’s no debating that.
Seriously, think about the children.
Thirdly, it’s unfair for Tuvix to exist considering the ramifications of what it means for not just Tuvok and Neelix, but for the crew, their friends and families as well.
Tuvok would never condone being merged with anyone, especially when it meant being taken away from his wife and children. While Vulcan’s get a bad rap for being emotionless, that’s not true. In fact, Tuvok has great emotional respect for his wife. When going through pon farr Tuvok rejects the idea of the holodeck when presented with it as an option, as he’s under the assumption that Tom Paris wants him to just pick any ol’ gal to conduct pon farr with. Yet, when Paris says he can do a complete duplicate of his wife, Tuvok agrees. Why? Because his love for his wife is so powerful he’d rather go through the pain of pon farr than disrespect her. So with that in mind, why would Tuvok consent to anything that would see him be definitely removed from his family’s life?
Neelix, to his creepy credit, is in love with a three-year-old. (Seriously, what was even the Ocampa?) Granted Kes aged liked a dog does, so she’d be in her 20’s by the point of the series but still. Kes is just as affected as anyone else. She even says she doesn’t love Tuvix and wants the man she does love, Neelix, back. As Tuvix was a science accident and not a sentient being born to a family, what right does he have over someone like Neelix?
Most people say that Tuvix was more likable and that they felt for him when he was begging. That’s unfair. Just because he may be more popular or more likable than Neelix and Tuvok, doesn’t give Tuvix the right to exist in their stead. You don’t get to just pick and choose which parts of a person you like in order to have a perfect person.
With Tuvix around, families and friends will have to mourn the death of their loved ones while Tuvix, who is loved by no one, not truly, gets to continue to exist as a weird and creepy amalgamation of two wholly different begins. If kids have a hard enough time with a step-parent, imagine trying to explain to your children that your father is now one-half of another being. It’s not natural and it’s not something that’s easily able to be processed.
Tuvix bore the responsibility of this situation. The only honorable thing would’ve been to go willingly, to ensure children didn’t have to needlessly lose their parent.
The Vulcans gave us the answer already.
Lastly and finally, it simply doesn’t make sense, logically speaking. For Tuvix to live, two must die. For Neelix and Tuvok to live, one must die. If you’re going to come on a Star Trek website and look for a debate that doesn’t include logic, you have already lost. You can’t go against logic in Trek. It will never work. Spock ended this debate decades ago.
"Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
With Tuvix, children lose their father, women lose their spouses, a ship loses their security and morale officers, their logical rutter, and their emotional pat on the shoulder. Too many people are negatively affected by Tuvix’s creation. Ergo, Tuvix cannot exist if the needs of the many are to be placed first and foremost.
The ship wanted Neelix and Tuvok back, not a half measure that replaces them.
Some will say the Doctor was clearly on Tuvix’s side as he declined to do the procedure but one could argue that he wasn’t. Not really. While the Doctor may come across as supporting Tuvix, at this point in the series he’s still very much a basic EMH doctor, meaning he can’t operate on anyone without their consent except for life-saving surgery. So that doesn’t mean the EMH agrees, it means his programming dictates that he needs consent. It’s like saying a robot designed with Asimov’s Three Laws is a pacifist just because they didn’t strike you.
No, it’s merely their programming.
Logically, Tuvix’s existence left too many negative situations to plan for. He was not someone who could be relied on, because you didn’t know who he was eventually going to end up becoming. He reduced the crew compliment by one, and in doing so took out the two polar opposites of the ship which helped stabilize and balance things. Tuvix had no track record, while Neelix and Tuvok had a glowing one. Janeway did what she needed to do to ensure that she saved two of her crew members and the ship as a whole.
She did the logical thing, which in this case, was also the right thing to do. It doesn’t mean she didn’t take it hard, it wasn’t supposed to be an easy decision. That’s what makes it such a compelling episode even all these years later.