In a message dated 97-05-25 21:56:20 EDT, Janet Simpson <[log in to unmask]> wrote: << ER is one of my most favorite shows (next to Star Trek Voyager...remember Seska BF her Baby?) >> My apologies to those who had to endure my rant on this subject in TLC. Seska was EVIL, EVIL, EVIL!!! She was also the only character who breastfed on Voyager or any other Star Trek show. On Deep Space Nine, Keiko O'Brien (one of the good guys) recently left her new baby son with her husband Miles while she went to Bayjor (sorry, I have no idea how most of this stuff is spelled, and am obviously guessing) for a couple of weeks. Bottles are clearly visible in the O'Brien's living quarters. The baby spends the whole episode crying his head off except when he is in his father's arms. No one thinks of calling his mother. When Molly O'Brien (Keiko and Miles' first child) was a baby, Keiko never fed her on screen. In the episode where Miles' body is taken over by a wicked alien and he holds his wife and infant daughter hostage, Keiko does not comfort her crying daughter at her breast. I cannot imagine that if Keiko had nursed Molly, she would have elected to bottlefeed her second child. And in the Voyager episode where the first baby is born on board, the doctor helpfully comments that since the baby is of mixed ancestry (mother is human, and father is ?---can't remember the name), and that mothers of the ? race typically have scaly breasts to protect them from their offspring's early erupting and very sharp teeth, this human mother may wish to consider alternatives to breastfeeding once the baby's teeth erupt. Never mind that a child doesn't chew on its mother's breasts when nursing! On Star Trek: The Next Generation Worf packed his son off to live with his parents. I love Star Trek too, but I find it immensely disturbing that the good guys practice detachment parenting and rely on artificial feeding, while the evil folks breastfeed and keep their babies close. Rita