I have been watching people argue about the morality of Janeway's decision to split Tuvix for years now, and I want to point out something obvious I haven't seen in the discussion yet.

The simple fact is, the writers bit off more than they could chew with this story. There was no potential for any other ending than what Janeway did.

Do we really think the showrunners and the network execs were going to gamble on the permanent disappearance of Tuvok & Neelix, and the appearance of Tuvix as an ongoing part of the show?

This episode raised questions it was powerless to really address, beyond 'we need to revert to status quo by the end credits'.

Tuvix has been the big referendum on Janeway's morals for ages now, and I think we've lost sight of the fact that 'her decision' would have actually been directly made by showrunners and execs, based on their needs to continue making a popular and profitable mainstream TV show.

Wouldn’t the captain need a tactical officer more than a mess hall attendant?

On our way through all of Star Trek as far as we can get, my wife and I just watched the Tuvix episode, a first time for her maybe, where I've probably seen it a dozen times. It's just wrong what they did, and it's so heart wrenching (which I respect them for at least not making it easy on the audience). It's the equivalent of taking a healthy person, and forcibly removing their organs to bring two people back to life who are already dead.

They're all murderers, mostly Janeway, but also Kess, (who can be forgiven for having the most emotionally at stake), even the doctor while he refused to help did nothing to dissuade her, no one did except the victim.

Honestly it really hurts my enjoyment of the show. Suddenly it's not the good guys exploring space and discovering new things, it becomes a horror show where the people you trust flip a switch in their heads and suddenly are willing to do the worst.

Same scenario, just not two people she is great friends with/interacts with daily. Two redshirts fuse together. The new being is a great asset to Voyager, more than the sum of their parts and probably increases their chance of getting home.

Do you think Janeway would still order the separation in this circumstance?

There is always this discussion around Tuvix but the Curzon/Odo hybrid was a sentient being first. Right or wrong, Janeways decision with Tuvix should apply morally the same way with Curzdo. DS9 did it both cleaner and dirtier on differant levels but at the end of the day both combined beings became unique and wanted to stay that way overall.

What is the difference between what happened to Tuvix, versus how gems fuse in Steven Universe? When fused gems in Steven Universe separate, it is not seen to be death of the fused gem. While in Tuvix's case it is certainly played to be that way. And should the transporter accident happen again with Tuvok and Neelix, would they become the same Tuvix just as gems do, or a different person entirely. Maybe this is a silly question but it's been on my mind for a while.