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* In the ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episode "Haven", the episode begins with Deanna Troi facing an arranged marriage. The episode is one extended debate over personal choice vs. cultural expectation which is soundly side-stepped by the plague ship mentioned almost in passing at the beginning of the episode suddenly having aboard it the woman Troi's husband-to-be has dreamed of all his life (literally).
* ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'': The episode "Dax". The titular character, a symbiont who lives inside of a Trill host, is accused of committing a crime. However, the crime in question was allegedly committed when the symbiont was bonded to Curzan, and it has since been passed to Jadzia. Since there is no way to remove the symbiont from Jadzia without killing her, the case becomes a question of whether or not it is right to punish Jadzia Dax for a crime committed by Curzan Dax. Both sides make strong points... Which are all rendered moot by the last minute revelation that Curzan didn't commit the crime in question. The issue of whether or not Trill symbionts can be held accountable for their past host's actions is ultimately never addressed.
* Much of the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' episode, "Boom Town", is dedicated to a debate on capital punishment, where the Doctor is put in the position of making the choice. {{spoiler|Before the Doctor has properly made up his mind, Blon Slitheen looks into the TARDIS and is turned into an egg.}}
** In the very next story the Doctor realises the only way to stop the genocidal Dalek fleet from wiping out everyone on Earth (and then moving on to other planets to wipe out their inhabitants too) is to send out a pulse that will not only kill all the Daleks, but also himself and everyone on Earth. The Doctor is saved from trying to decide whether it's moral to kill a load of people in collateral damage (when inaction will lead to their death anyway) to save everyone else when Rose becomes an almost literal [[Deus Ex Machina]] and saves the day by effortlessly wiping out the Daleks without any further casualties.
** On a later Doctor Who episode, "The Almost People", they spend a long time making it clear that the gangers are just as real as the people they're duplicating, and not just tools. {{spoiler|Helpfully, at least one of each pair dies before making it back to the TARDIS, smoothly avoiding any dilemmas when they get back to their families.}}
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* Season 8 of ''[[Smallville]]'' introduced Davis Bloome, [[Super-Powered Evil Side|a.k.a. Doomsday]], who, due to his split personality, discovers he is responsible for the deaths of several people in Metropolis. At one point he is goaded into becoming Doomsday; under the other side's influence, he smothers the person, and Doomsday recedes, allowing him control. Once Clark and Chloe figure out that he's been killing criminals to keep Doomsday at bay, they have to decide if Davis is still a good guy making the most of a horrible situation or a horrible killer. {{spoiler|They seemed to be leaning toward the former, then he gained his freedom and [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|promptly hopped off the slope]] by [[Murder the Hypotenuse|killing Jimmy]], cementing him as a bad guy.}}
** Clark in Season 9 was faced with the difficult question of what to do about the Kandorian refugees: should they try to pass as normal humans and live regular lives or acquire their rightful Kryptonian powers? Being normal left them vulnerable to paranoid humans who had no qualms about killing them off but under Major Zod's leadership, the empowered Kandorians were destined to conquer Earth. Clark gives them [[Take a Third Option|a third option]]: {{spoiler|shaking their faith in Zod and using the Book of Rao to send them to another plane of existence where they can make a new start}}.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (TV)|Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'', which can usually be counted on to examine social problems at some length, fell into this trap in Season 4.5. In light of [[Crapsack World|recent discoveries]] the policies of the Adama/Roslin administration are brought into question -- the two had fielded an [[Ends Justify The Means]] approach to getting to Earth, especially Roslin who followed her visions on blind faith. Even in the midst of the latest scandal, Roslin is irresponsibly letting the government get out of control without allowing another leader to step into power, and Adama is considering allowing the Cylons -- the same Cylons that nuked the 12 Colonies and then tormented the population of New Caprica for a year -- ''citizenship'' into the Colonial Fleet. While Adama may have justification for contemplating this move, the show is right to suggest it, as well as Roslin's childish behavior, deserves to be re-evaluated with care ... however, when Adama and Roslin's opposition turns out to be led by [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Felix Gaeta]] and [[Complete Monster|Tom Zarek]], who summarily [[Moral Event Horizon|attempt to kill many of our beloved characters]] and succeed at killing numerous secondaries, the writers opt for a [[Stuff Blowing Up|different approach]]. It seems that [[Grey and Gray Morality|getting our protagonists into tough spots]] was not on [[Deus Ex Machina|the agenda]], after all.
** ''Battlestar Galactica'' had a recurring theme of [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]], about whether the Cylons are really "alive" and had souls. But according to ''[[Caprica]]'', the Cylons originated when a human's memories and personality are coded into a digital avatar. So basically, the skinjob Cylons have bodies molecularly indistinguishable from humans, and their minds are essentially human minds, and assuming ''[[Caprica]]'' doesn't end [[Deus Ex Machina|with a massive wave of amnesia]], the BSG characters should know this from history class. So they are as human as anyone else. Why the hell are even they considered [[You Keep Using That Word|robots]] by any criteria except [[Artificial Human|Karel Capek's?]]
*** Well, they're still hulking metal monstrosities. Also, it's it would seem that the fact about uploaded human minds never becomes public knowledge, and it's quite possible that the only ones to know will be dead before the war breaks out.
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[[Category:Writer Cop Out]]
[[Category:Debate And Switch]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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