In Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “The Offspring,” we learn of a new artificial intelligence aboard the Starfleet enterprise. During his off time, Data creates an Android based on his own structure. He names this creation Lal and claims it as his own child. At the beginning of the episode, the AI is gender neutral and lacks basic skills. Data taking on the role as father allows Lal to choose its gender and we get to see it choose female from the thousands of choices. At this point, Data and Lal are ready to begin Lal’s training in social skills at the most elementary level. Lal has many difficulties with simple tasks and tends to be socially awkward, this does not discourage her from continuing to better herself.

The problem first raised was when Captain Picard initially finds out about Data creating Lal in secrecy and furthermore the fact that he has named her his child. Captain Picard believed it was completely wrong, as he sees Lal as an invention, not a child. The captain later drops this mentality as Deanna Troi presents the question of “Why should biology rather than technology determine whether it is a child?”

Upon finding out of Lal, the head of Starfleet decides it is right for them to obtain ownership of the creation in which they can also observe and experiment with her. Data was totally opposed to this as Lal is his daughter and believes he should be the one raising her. In the end, while the intense debate was occurring over who should keep Lal, they get a call about Lal’s health. Lal turns out to be unsalvageable and she must be turned off.

Ethics in the medical field is a broad topic as doctors are faced to make ethical decisions every day. One common example is when dealing with patients who cannot afford medical assistance, whether it be their medications or scans. Technology plays a huge role in medicine as it is used to do what the human cannot, in the case of efficiency or ability among others.