Ethics
- Episode aired Feb 29, 1992
- TV-PG
- 46m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
3.1K
YOUR RATING
After an accident that leaves him no longer able to walk, Worf asks Riker to help him commit suicide.After an accident that leaves him no longer able to walk, Worf asks Riker to help him commit suicide.After an accident that leaves him no longer able to walk, Worf asks Riker to help him commit suicide.
David Keith Anderson
- Ensign Armstrong
- (uncredited)
Rachen Assapiomonwait
- Crewman Nelson
- (uncredited)
Lena Banks
- Starfleet Ensign
- (uncredited)
Michael Braveheart
- Crewman Martinez
- (uncredited)
Debbie David
- Ensign Russell
- (uncredited)
Denise Deuschle
- Science Division Officer
- (uncredited)
Margaret Rose Flores
- Starfleet Sciences Officer
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDuring this episode it is revealed that Klingons have visible ridges on their spines and feet as well as their foreheads.
- GoofsIn Sickbay after the accident, Dr. Crusher tells Worf that the falling barrel shattered seven of his vertebrae and crushed his spinal cord. However, during the operation, when Worf's spine is removed and placed into the genitronic replicator, it looks remarkably intact and shows no damaged vertebrae.
- Quotes
Alexander Rozhenko: This is part of that Klingon stuff, isn't it? My mother always said Klingons had a lot of dumb ideas about honor.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Parallels (1993)
- SoundtracksStar Trek: The Next Generation Main Title
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage
Featured review
The right to die
Worf's spine is crushed, leaving him paralyzed. He wants to perform a ritual suicide to die with honor, but the self-righteous Crusher and Riker want to force him to live with the disability. Meanwhile, a specialist comes on board with an experimental procedure that could make it possible for Worf to walk again, but she meets constant resistance from Crusher.
For a normally left-wing show, this episode has a strong stench of the right-wing moral police. We're lead to believe that Worf shouldn't commit suicide, because of some moral objection two other characters have (when it's not about their lives). Other reviewers have mentioned "Half a Life" and how the message was not to interfere with another culture with a ritual suicide, but here, the exact opposite message is preached. They're right about the contradictory messages between these two episodes.
The episode reminds me of the Terri Schiavo case. She was in a persistent vegetative state and as per her positions from before going into a coma, she didn't want to be on prolonged life support, but the conservatives decided to stick their nose in and there was a huge polemic where there didn't need to be.
On the other hand, if this episode had focused on the ethics of the specialist using patients as objects of experimentation, it might have had a good message, but in the end, it seems to have been written by a preacher who wanted to push his life-is-sacred dogma even when he's not in church.
For a normally left-wing show, this episode has a strong stench of the right-wing moral police. We're lead to believe that Worf shouldn't commit suicide, because of some moral objection two other characters have (when it's not about their lives). Other reviewers have mentioned "Half a Life" and how the message was not to interfere with another culture with a ritual suicide, but here, the exact opposite message is preached. They're right about the contradictory messages between these two episodes.
The episode reminds me of the Terri Schiavo case. She was in a persistent vegetative state and as per her positions from before going into a coma, she didn't want to be on prolonged life support, but the conservatives decided to stick their nose in and there was a huge polemic where there didn't need to be.
On the other hand, if this episode had focused on the ethics of the specialist using patients as objects of experimentation, it might have had a good message, but in the end, it seems to have been written by a preacher who wanted to push his life-is-sacred dogma even when he's not in church.
helpful•2017
- skiop
- Feb 25, 2016
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime46 minutes
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- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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