A case in ethics
Posted on Mon Feb 9th, 2026 @ 4:10pm by Lieutenant Jane Belanger Dr
1,062 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Echos on the Deck
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: After "Need your expertise"
Jane had started with a cursory glance at the patient’s medical file, just to make sure that “paralysed from the waist down” wasn’t an early diagnosis, later amended. No need to start barking up the wrong tree.
Then she went through everything Starfleet Medical had on the Nausicaans – not all that much from a physician’s point of view, if someone needed to treat a serious condition – and moved to her IMED files.
Technically speaking there was and wasn’t a whole more there, not that she had expected a miracle. There were however no less than 4 articles referencing the Nausicaans among a choice few species with certain similarities. One of these articles caught her attention. It was written by a specialist with long field experience, come late to the Exchange. She had often found his views to be of great help.
Jane returned to the patient’s file and pondered every item she found there. Most of the data came from a Vulcan surgeon. She was seriously intrigued that he wouldn’t take the opportunity to bring Vhordek Vaul to his own Sickbay.
Eventually she extracted herself from her office to talk about the case with an MO who had excellent surgery training. After that, she headed for the isolation room where the patient had been moved recently.
Vhordek Vaul had been under mild sedation from early on. This was not to keep a sturdy, potentially violent individual from using what he had left to inflict damage to others. Very simply, he had proved to be agitated at several turns and he could have injured himself further.
“Greetings, Vhordek Vaul,” Jane positioned herself just a couple steps away, where he could see her easily. “I am Doctor Belanger, the chief medical officer here. We didn’t meet before because I only arrived today. Do you understand me?”
His eyes had opened. He growled low, straining against the restraints that held his powerful arms and hands at his side. When he spoke, his voice was rough.
“Let me go!”
“And then what? What would happen to you?” Jane looked down his length. “Will your family take care of you?”
“Better than you,” he spat, straining again.
“We could help you build a new life…” Jane refused to mention the fact that he had assaulted an officer on a Starfleet facility. It wasn’t her role to take such matters into account. “We could fit you with a device so you can walk again.”
“Walk? Run? Fight?” he growled.
“Walk, yes. The rest... not outside of a virtual environment,” Jane admitted. The prognosis could be a much better one depending on patients but he didn't fall in the right category. "The upper part of your body, hands and arms are fine.. You can use tools or consoles."
She wasn’t going to a whole lot of time with him and he wasn’t likely the kind of patient she may hope to ease into new prospects, but she wanted to give him the full picture.
“I don’t want your new life! Even weaklings get better than this!”
Jane nodded to herself at the wording. There it was, in a nutshell.
“Death then,” she suggested, putting the real words out there with an even voice. “Is that what your family will give you?” So her readings suggested, based on certain profiles for species with a similar cultural slant. The whole debate on handicap, equal rights and chances, none of that would even start on worlds where physical strength and combat abilities defined the pecking order.
Everything she had learnt in the past years had drilled it into her. She needed to put her own sensitivity aside, lay out the facts for the patient, consider the patient's requests and make the best recommendation based on current UFP guiding lines. Adding to that of course, that Nausicaa wasn't an UFP member.
“I will live again in full strength when they deliver me to the…”
She didn’t understand the words but the meaning was clear enough. She could read that in the way his upper torso relaxed back, envisioning what his civilisation or cultural group had defined as the promised "after".
There had been a time on Earth when this conversation would have called for high stake ethics. She understood now why the Vulcan surgeon had not looked beyond what was plain to see. Her colleague knew enough already.
Still, Jane continued with some more back and fro so could extract from him a clear statement for official records, then she took a breath.
“Vhordek Vaul…” she said slowly. “I will inform the commanding officer on this station that you refuse further treatment and that you ask to be released to your own people for whatever aftermath they may decide upon. Releasing you is not my decision to make, however, but the station commander’s.”
He snorted and used a few words that didn’t need translating. She looked wholly useless to him from where he lay.
“I will be back when I have news for you," she concluded.
He didn’t bother to answer further and Jane walked out of the isolation ward. This was a real downer, the kind of case nobody likes to handle, particularly on one’s first day on the job… It wasn’t about her, though. She would live to see better days.
She found the freshly arrived MO again. He delegated what he was doing and came over. Jane handed the updated file.
“Vaul refuses further treatment. Staff will have to be extra careful when handling him, work in two at least. He has a strong death wish.”
“What is your assessment?” he asked, showing a flash of concern.
“This patient falls under the category Y-3 as per currently applicable definitions. Full reconstruction is medically impossible. Remedial surgery is deemed unacceptable by the patient owing to his core beliefs and cultural objections. Therefore we will continue basis care and keep him alive to the best of our abilities, until he is removed from our care and we are officially released of our medical obligations.”
“My first Y3. I can't say I was looking forward to it."
“I’ll be back for the next shift. I need to write that report and get settled in, if there’s nothing more.”
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Lt Jane Belander, MD
CMO
Sentinel Station
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