How did they fire phasers before "The Adversary"

[Christopher]

It's not out of the question that a century from current Trek those things would be completely normal. Attitudes change, even long duration cultural touch stones. In Enterprise they establish that all genetic engineering, even purely corrective stuff was verboten. By TNG, wild genetic experimentation is normal, such as with those kids engineered to have telekinetic powers and offensive immune systems; even though engineering purely to enhance people is looked down on and against Starfleet rules, but apparently not Federation rules.

That's an interesting attempt to reconcile DS9's genetic engineering ban with TNG's "Unnatural Selection," but I'm afraid it doesn't wash. Bashir's parents, who were civilians, had him engineered in secret as a child because it was illegal. They were the ones who were in danger of prison time if anyone found out -- and ultimately Bashir's father ended up coming forward voluntarily and accepting a two-year prison sentence in exchange for Julian getting to keep his Starfleet commission. That proves it wasn't a Starfleet ban but a Federation law that applied to civilians.

Unfortunately, it's simply a continuity error. DS9 retconned "Unnatural Selection" in a way that's tough to reconcile. (I posited in one of my novels -- The Buried Age, IIRC -- that the experiment in that episode was a test case for a relaxing of the ban, and presumably an unsuccessful one.)

 

[Go-Captain]

It might still work if it's still a crime on Earth. I recall it sounding like Bashir's parents did not even leave the Federation to get the work done.