Torchwood moral and ethical issues

Torchwood... what ethical and moral conumdrums that one has raised.

Spoiler warnings: I will be revealing plot secrets, so if you haven't seen it, please skip this post. If you want to see it after reading this, I do have it on my DVR, as I'm recording the encore marathon right now. Otherwise it will be available on BBC America Shop on Tuesday.

There are several ethical and moral questions raised in this five part mini-series. One deals with how we act and react to extraterrestrial alien threats and demands. Another is how government as a whole reacts to the aliens, those entrusted to deal with them, and how that influences their decision. A third is about sacrifice, to quote Spock in Trek IV (or was it III?) the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.

First up: how do we act and react to alien life forms, their threats and demands if made? For me, there's no question there is alien life in the universe. The odds are so against there not being other life out there that I have no doubt. Have they made contact with us yet? I suspect they have, many times over the centuries. Some may just be curious about us, others may wish to help us advance technologically or spiritually, others may well see us as the enemy, even though we haven't left our solar system yet. Others will view us as stupid children and treat us as such. In some respects, they wouldn't be far wrong.

How would you react if all the world's children all started chanting the same thing at time? We are coming, we are coming back?

The biggest moral and ethical issue raised in this mini-series deals with the aliens wanting 10% of the world's children, or they wipe out the entire human race. When it's found out that the kids are used as a living recreational drug supply for the aliens, the ethics stakes go even higher.

How would you chose the 10%? As presented, the government officials chose the poorest performing schools. Their reasoning? Those would be the most likely to end up on the dole or in prison, those most likely not to succeed in the world.

There's the catch. If you, as a government official, had the chance to clean out your juvenile detention centers, the poorest of the poor, those that are the biggest monetary drain on society, would you hand them over to an alien, just to get them off your hands? Even if you knew that the children would become living drug supplies for those aliens, and that the aliens would likely be back for more in the future?

I wonder how the Chinese would have gathered their 10%? As it is, parents in China are only supposed to have one child. What do you tell those parents? You've had your one, now give them up? And oh, by the way, no, you can't have any more, either. If there wasn't an uproar before, there would be with that.

I couldn't. I would fight to my dying breath to make sure that 'my' six kids would not be in that 10%. When they were safe, I'd do what I could to make sure no one else was in that 10% either.

The other thing that rankles me is how, in this show, the government treats the people that can best deal with the threat. By eliminating those that know best how to deal, you lose whatever advantage you have. You lose the knowledge base, the expertise that in the end gets you out of the mess. Aargh.

Sacrifice. How far are you willing to go, how many lives are you willing to sacrifice if it means saving the rest of the human race? Are you willing to sacrifice your lover, your best friends, your own child or grandchild if it means the rest will live?

With Torchwood, the adults are cannon fodder, the red shirts. They go in knowing they won't get a long life span. If they don't know, it doesn't take long to find out. The only one who lives is Captain Jack, and that's because he's a fixed point in time and space thanks to Dr. Who.

Jack sacrifices his own grandson to save the rest of the world's children. He wants to find another way, but runs out of time. There is no other choice. And as much as his daughter hates him for taking away her only child, somewhere she understands. His life for all the others. It's not a fair trade. Yes, she can have more, and it's still her first born child.

After all is said and done, the alien threat is over, how do you move on? Can you move on, given how much you have lost, and the grief over each and every death that you may have played any part in? Sounds to me like a major guilt trip in the making.

Do you stay, do you run? Jack chose to run, Gwen stayed. Gwen had hope, both in the form of her marriage to Rhys and in the child she carried. Jack lost almost everything near and dear to him: the hub, Ianto, his daughter and grandson, and all the Torchwood personnel he's lost over the 100+ years he's been working there.

I'm not sure I could stay and cope with that, either. Even with all I know and the resources I have access to, it would be a long time coming out of that guilt trip.

Enough of the rant for now. If watching for the third time gives me any more to rant about, I'll write about it later.

Oh, there is one last thing. If this is the series finale, damn, what a way to go.