Medical Ethics and Custody of the Vulnerable
The revival of long-dead cryonics patients forces a clash of medical duty, legal authority, and ethical obligation. Dr. Crusher’s immediate decision to revive and assume custody frames Starfleet’s humane responsibilities against procedural and diplomatic concerns — who owns the revived person, and what obligations accrue to physicians, command, and society when people are resurrected into an unfamiliar future?
Events Exemplifying This Theme
In Sickbay Picard discovers three twenty‑first‑century humans Data secretly beamed aboard and Dr. Beverly Crusher has thawed and stabilized them — despite evidence they were cryonically preserved after death. Data …
Dr. Beverly Crusher brings the first of three 21st‑century cryonics patients back to consciousness while Picard, Data and Worf observe. Data's recovered disk supplies the identification and medical context: Clare …
In Sickbay Beverly revives three 21st‑century humans while Picard, Data and Worf observe. Data reads the recovered files—Clare Raymond, steady and grieving; Ralph Offenhouse, a hard‑edged financier with advanced cardiomyopathy; …
In Sickbay the Enterprise crew revives three twenty-first-century humans. Data reads the recovered files — Clare Raymond, Ralph Offenhouse, and a partially unreadable file for L.Q. "Sonny" Clemonds — while …