Between this ep and "Epitaph One," I really can't read Adelle as having anything other than an ironclad set of ethics . . . which just happens to be a bit looser than most people's. So yeah, I really think she does. That much as an extrapolation of her character seems to me pretty certain. (Also, I just plain prefer that interpretation: I think right-angles-morality Adelle is much more interesting than amoral Adelle).
If the task is to try and construct an ethic by which the one action is okay but the other isn't (and I do think the latter is worse and not morally equivalent at all even if I think both are too morally problematic to undertake), then we're on much less firm ground: well, then, Topher got as much consent from Priya as, to his and to his Adelle's knowledge at that point, she was able to give, and would ever be able to give (at least without a level of intervention that only Topher would be able to provide?). Insane!Priya was who Priya was.
While you and I would not consider that sufficient to justify making her an active (although it seems to me there are plenty of Dollhouse watchers who don't seem to think any set of circumstances would be sufficient to allow one to consent to becoming an Active--obviously not a perspective shared by Topher or Adelle), it is something--and the fact remains that while Priya's ability to consent is problematized, this too diminishes Priya's ability to refuse treatment; the only way that Adelle and Topher can provide her with what they truly believe is something she would rationally want is to take insane!Priya's yes as a yes. Insane!Priya is who Priya is.
Whereas Nolan's fundamental eradication of her ability to consent--well, as I said, while I don't think the choice Adelle and Topher made is okay, it's intuitively obvious to me that what Nolan did was infinitely worse, so I'm not sure how good I'll be at articulating the argument to someone who doesn't share that intuition. But Nolan knows that there's an accessible sane!Priya available if he simply stops her medication, and thus that insane!Priya is a diminishment of her mind's default state. He's actively taking away her ability to consent, which is unequivocally a case of rape. To me, what he did was a deep betrayal of Priya's personhood, and thus the worst kind of moral evil, and what Topher and Adelle did wasn't despite still being very morally dicey.
Whereas Adelle's use of Victor isn't, or at least isn't any more so than any use of an Active is--it's simply stealing company property--which made the Rossum representative bringing it up seem deeply weird. Being willing to steal but not be an accomplice to rape doesn't strike me as a particularly incoherent set of values--especially since Adelle has to be okay with theft since part of her job is turning Actives into thieves. It makes me wonder what she has done in her past, especially since I was surprised that Adelle gave into Rossum so easily (when we know from "Epitaph One" that she eventually turns against them for similar reasons, although then it was on a greater scale and here it's just one Active); I would have expected her to much more actively conspire with Topher and/or Boyd.
Which reminds me that I thought Nolan's comment that he never imagined acting out a scenario in which Sierra resisted as deeply odd since he had to know that Adelle would never have authorized such an engagement without extraordinary pressure (of the sort shown in this episode) applied.
no subject
If the task is to try and construct an ethic by which the one action is okay but the other isn't (and I do think the latter is worse and not morally equivalent at all even if I think both are too morally problematic to undertake), then we're on much less firm ground: well, then, Topher got as much consent from Priya as, to his and to his Adelle's knowledge at that point, she was able to give, and would ever be able to give (at least without a level of intervention that only Topher would be able to provide?). Insane!Priya was who Priya was.
While you and I would not consider that sufficient to justify making her an active (although it seems to me there are plenty of Dollhouse watchers who don't seem to think any set of circumstances would be sufficient to allow one to consent to becoming an Active--obviously not a perspective shared by Topher or Adelle), it is something--and the fact remains that while Priya's ability to consent is problematized, this too diminishes Priya's ability to refuse treatment; the only way that Adelle and Topher can provide her with what they truly believe is something she would rationally want is to take insane!Priya's yes as a yes. Insane!Priya is who Priya is.
Whereas Nolan's fundamental eradication of her ability to consent--well, as I said, while I don't think the choice Adelle and Topher made is okay, it's intuitively obvious to me that what Nolan did was infinitely worse, so I'm not sure how good I'll be at articulating the argument to someone who doesn't share that intuition. But Nolan knows that there's an accessible sane!Priya available if he simply stops her medication, and thus that insane!Priya is a diminishment of her mind's default state. He's actively taking away her ability to consent, which is unequivocally a case of rape. To me, what he did was a deep betrayal of Priya's personhood, and thus the worst kind of moral evil, and what Topher and Adelle did wasn't despite still being very morally dicey.
Whereas Adelle's use of Victor isn't, or at least isn't any more so than any use of an Active is--it's simply stealing company property--which made the Rossum representative bringing it up seem deeply weird. Being willing to steal but not be an accomplice to rape doesn't strike me as a particularly incoherent set of values--especially since Adelle has to be okay with theft since part of her job is turning Actives into thieves. It makes me wonder what she has done in her past, especially since I was surprised that Adelle gave into Rossum so easily (when we know from "Epitaph One" that she eventually turns against them for similar reasons, although then it was on a greater scale and here it's just one Active); I would have expected her to much more actively conspire with Topher and/or Boyd.
Which reminds me that I thought Nolan's comment that he never imagined acting out a scenario in which Sierra resisted as deeply odd since he had to know that Adelle would never have authorized such an engagement without extraordinary pressure (of the sort shown in this episode) applied.