1/ Random geeky thought. Yesterday I re-watched the Star Trek Voyager episode 'Tuvix', where the characters Tuvok and Neelix are merged after a botched teleportation, bringing into existence a 'third' person, Tuvix, who combines characteristics of both original characters.
2/ (Tuvix is in a sense actually nicer than both Tuvok and Neelix!). This scenario obviously gives rise to all kinds of philosophical questions pertaining to the metaphysics and ethics of personhood. But one thing I had not noticed when I first watched the episode many->
3/ -> years ago is that it is in practice a trolley scenario. Once the means to undo the merge are established, Tuvix does not want to be 'unmerged', he wants to remain alive as Tuvix. However, if he stays alive, then Tuvok and Neelix are in practice 'dead' as individuals.
4/ (🚨Spoiler alert🚨) Captain Janeway eventually decides to go through with the 'unmerging' procedure, which seems to be the same as pulling the lever in the classical trolley scenario. (Doing nothing would amount to letting Tuvix live but Tuvok and Neelix would die.)
5/ The episode does convey the complexity of the moral dilemma in question, in particular as the (holographic) doctor refuses to perform the procedure as it entails a breach of his 'do no harm' oath. So the end is rather melancholic, which is quite appropriate given the dilemma.
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