Night Leah.
Badger - you are right about the parents standing on their homeworld, I was just wondering it the station was going to do anything about it. But I don’t think station security will do anything.
ATGreat and I are on the same page - if this had happened on their homeworld, fine. The question of B5’s jurisdiction is an interesting one.
You know I wonder about that. Was the studio always pestering in the affairs of the Original Series to try and tackle a subject like this?
JMS wrote:
I fought like hell to retain the original ending, and won. (You probably read about this, btw, in my articles for TZ Magazine.) This is studio-think, let’s find a nice, unthreatening, safe, middle-ground where we can resolve this without anybody being upset, threatened or offended by the story. I’m sorry, but life sometimes hands you hard choices, there ARE either/or scenarios, in which nobody really wins, and SF should be exploring those as well as the fuzzy feel-good stories. It’s time SF grew up a little, damn it, and started confronting hard questions that can’t always be resolved by reversing the polarity on the metaphase unit.
Besides, Kirk only interfered with false gods 
I don’t think there is a jurisdiction. It doesn’t threaten the station so they have no business getting involved. The parents are answerable to their world. Sinclair said it himself. If they pushed it, they would defeat the purpose of Babylon 5. It was setup to allow people to work together not dictate policy, beliefs, whatever.
Also from JMS:
The thing about “Believers” is that, really, nobody’s right, and in their own way, from their point of view, everybody’s right.
That’s why I like this episode. Sometimes unpleasent, no win things happen. How we deal with them displays our character.
Now that I said that, I think Kirk should have been busted to swabby for cheating the Kobiashi Maru scenario!
By the way, how would you be allowed to take the test again? It looses it’s meaning if you know what is going on.
Well yes, before they committed what would be seen as murder to other species ON Babylon 5. That’s why I wonder. I could see Sinclair just sending them on their way, but I also could see there being a larger issue at play that I don’t think gets played out here.
Presumably, they’d be extradited back to their homeworld, where, as ‘Talos said, whatever judicial system they had would side with their decision. Between this episode and the last, it’s pretty clear that B5 laws are still developing. From Earth’s point of view, of course, this would be a crime committed by this species against one of their own. Much as the ambassadors’ reactions to the parents’ pleas indicated, no one would want to get involved.
Thank the gods for JMS. He so clearly paved the way for modern sci-fi.
Besides Kirk only interfered with false gods
And Romans. And computers. And interplanetary wars. And…
I see what you’re saying but the stability on the station was always tenuous and on the brink of collapse. Sinclair can’t jeopardize that by making a precedence. They never really had time to tackle that issue, you’re right. But could you blame them with the hell they go through?
Like I said…false gods.
Then there is an issue of how different species might raise their children? If you had a race of turtles that lay their eggs and leave, and the kids have to run through a gauntlet of preditors to reach adulthood, are the parents abusing their children?
How about sexuality? There is a fish where the female fish absorbs the male fish into it’s body. Can you apply human equal rights rules to that species? How about Black Widows and Praying Mantises, they mate and then murder their mate. Is that murder?
It is a reason for Branigans Law, sorry, The Prime Directive.
Yes indeed. Love this quote from him:
A good story should provoke discussion, debate, argument…and the occasional bar fight.
OK, (sigh) I guess we are at step four. Everyone take four shots of your favorite beverage then we’ll pass out the pool cues and broken bottles.
Anyone want to throw the chair?
Really, though, it makes you wonder: how would Kirk have handled this situation? Other than singlehandedly disproving their religion and tumbling their world into chaos, of course. 
Essentially, Babylon 5 is like the United Nations. If (for example) a citizen of the Vatican murdered another Vatican citizen on the grounds of the United Nations, whose jurisdiction would it be? The building itself is on US soil, but our government would almost certainly not want to get involved. The Vatican is not a member of the UN, so they would probably insist on extradition. I doubt any of the member states would object as long as none of their citizens weren’t involved.
'talos, no, I don’t blame them 
It’s just a reflection on the episode 
This is my cue to quietly leave through the side door, isn’t it?
Like Inara said, As with any situation, give Jayne a big stick and stand back…
Well actually with the child being ordered to take chemo by the courts & the parents going underground with him in the last 2 weeks, this episode has a certain resonance right now. I always found it heartwrenching as well. There is no right answer on this. Not really.
I also have to wonder what, if anything, JMS has had to say about BSG. It seems to embody what he wanted to see completely.