Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series)

Statistical Probabilities (1997)

Nana Visitor: Major Kira Nerys

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Quotes 

• Doctor Bashir : [in Sisko's quarters, after Bashir has just met four patients who were all genetically enhanced like he was]  All I kept thinking was "there but for the grace of God go I".

  Lt. Commander Dax : How do you mean?

  Doctor Bashir : My parents managed to find a decent doctor to perform the DNA resequencing on me. These four weren't so lucky. They all suffered unintended side-effects and by the time they were five or six they're parents were forced to come forward and admit they'd broken the law so that they're children could get treatment.

  Captain Sisko : Perhaps they waited too long?

  Doctor Bashir : Yeah, there was nothing the doctors at the institute could do for them. These cases are so rare. There's no standard treatment.

  Major Kira : I can't imagine it was a very stimulating environment for them?

  Doctor Bashir : That's what Doctor Loews saw when she first came to the institute. She got permission to separate them from the other residents so that she could work with them.

  Odo : Why did she bring them here?

  Doctor Bashir : She thought they might respond to meeting someone like them who was leading a normal life. She was also hoping that one day they might be able to live on they're own and be productive.

  Chief O'Brien : Well, let's hope they don't get too productive. It might make the rest of us look bad.

  Lt. Commander Worf : It is not a laughing matter. If people like them are allowed to compete freely then parents would feel pressured to have they're children enhanced so they could keep up.

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

  Doctor Bashir : Giving them a chance to contribute doesn't necessarily mean sanctioning what was done to them. They didn't ask to have they're DNA tampered with. They were only children. And why should they be excluded just because they're parents broke the law?

  Captain Sisko : You're right. It's not quite fair. But even so... it seemed like a good way to discourage genetic tampering.

  Chief O'Brien : Besides, it's not as if we're trying to exclude them from anything. We're just talking about... limiting what they're allowed to do.

  Doctor Bashir : Like joining Starfleet?

  Lt. Commander Worf : Exactly.

  Doctor Bashir : [to Worf]  Are you saying that I shouldn't be allowed to wear this uniform?

  Lt. Commander Worf : Well, you are an exception.

  Doctor Bashir : An exception. I should be used to that. I've been one all my life. First, because of the DNA resequencing and now because I've been allowed to join Starfleet.

  Lt. Commander Worf : Perhaps I should not have said anything?

  Doctor Bashir : No, no it's alright.

  [this conversation has obviously made everyone very uncomfortable, not just Bashir]