issues of difference: a unique twist

One of the interesting themes explored in Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, is the ongoing societal and personal impact of the use of genetic resequencing. This idea was first introduced in The Original Series but was not really explored again in The Next Generation. In Deep Space Nine, we learn rather late in the series, when Dr. Louis Zimmerman comes to profile Julian Bashir for potential use as a model for an emergency medical hologram, that Julian underwent genetic resequencing as a child. This should have disqualified him from serving in Starfleet; but he has withheld the information and managed to live a normal life in spite of his enhanced abilities.

The truth about Julian's past is discovered when his parents encounter the holographic Julian and interact with him, not realizing he is a hologram. Eventually, his parents agree to serve a sentence in prison for having him genetically altered in exchange for his being allowed to continue serving in Starfleet.

In subsequent episodes, we see that Julian's relationships change as knowledge of his genetic enhancement becomes public. Some of his friends become bitter toward him and expect things of him that are unfair. He has no support system for coping with these things.

In the episode, "Statistical Probabilities," Dr. Bashir has the opportunity to work with four people who have been genetically engineered in the hope of helping them to become able to participate productively in society. Having been genetically altered as a child himself, he is able to empathize with their predicament to some degree. He shares his feelings about his first encounter with the group with his friends from the senior staff over dinner. The conversation has unforeseen effects on him.

Julian: All I kept thinking was "there but for the grace of God go I."

Dax: How do you mean?

Julian: My parents found a decent doctor
to perform the DNA resequencing on me. These four weren't so lucky. They all suffered unintended side effects. By the time they were five or six years old, their parents had to come forward and admit that they'd broken the law so their children could get treatment.

Sisko: Sounds like they waited too long.

Julian: There wasn't much the doctors at the Institute could do for them -- cases like theirs are so rare there's no standard treatment.

Kira: I can't imagine it was a very challenging environment for them.

Julian: That's exactly what Doctor Loews felt when she first came to the Institute. She got permission to separate them from the other
residents so she could work with them.

Odo: Why did she bring them here?

Julian: She thought they might respond to meeting someone who was like them, but was living a normal life. She's hoping that someday they'll be able to live on their own and
be productive.

O'Brien: I hope they don't end up being too productive -- it'd make the rest of us look bad.

Worf: It is no laughing matter. If
people like them are allowed to compete freely, parents would feel pressured to have their children enhanced so that they could keep up.

Odo: That's precisely what prompted the ban on DNA resequencing in the
first place.

Julian: Giving them a chance to contribute doesn't mean sanctioning what was done to them. They didn't ask to have their DNA tampered with -- they were just children when it happened. Why should they be excluded when their parents are
the ones who broke the law?

Sisko: You're right. It's not quite
fair. But even so it seemed a good way to discourage genetic tampering.
O'Brien:
Besides, we're not talking about excluding them, we're talking about putting certain limits on what they're allowed to do.

Julian: Like joining Starfleet.

Worf: Exactly.

Julian: Are you saying I shouldn't be allowed to wear this uniform?

Worf: You... are an exception.

No matter how many times I watch this episode, the last line of this dialogue always hits me like a surprise dart. "You are an exception." People have stereotypical expectations of various groups that I fall into. They may or may not realize that I fit into the category they are stereotyping at the time of discussion. (You would be amazed how many people tell me they "forget" I am blind--because I do not fit their stereotypical idea of whatever it means to "act blind.") When I point out, in some manner, that I fit the group, and I question the stereotype, the person often says, "You are an exception."

As a member of the group--and a person who is rather intimately familiar with the group and its needs, I am not so often an exception. Instead, what has happened is that I have caused the person's stereotypes to come into conflict with reality. But it is more comfortable to insist that I am an exception than to change one's understanding of reality.

In the end, Julian is (over the course of another episode) only able to help one of the four individuals. She goes on to seek out her own life; and he continues to struggle with his own adjustment process. This is never really resolved in the series. It is explored a bit further in the relaunch novel, Twist of Faith. Like a disability, being genetically altered is something a person continues to grapple with all his life. I appreciate that the writers revisited it from one scenario to another. It is an interesting way to examine issues of difference from a new perspective.