All I need to know in life I learned from Star Trek™

[ahorbinski]

I'm working on revising and updating my undergraduate thesis, an ethical look at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East from a human rights perspective, for submission to the Berkeley Student Journal of Asian Studies. While I was typing away this afternoon I thought of that scene at the beginning of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in which Sarek confronts the Klingon ambassador before the Federation president and the Klingon ambassador says, in defense of the destruction of the Genesis planet and the deaths of the Federation personnel there, "We have the right to preserve our race!" and Sarek asks, "You have the right to commit murder?" in his inimitable Sarek way, i.e. flatly contemptuous.

So really, the need to establish definitively that some things are beyond the pale even in war is not one that is obviated, even in the 24th century. And the precedent needs to be reconfirmed as long as people keep committing crimes against humanity.