Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 16 Raised Ethical Questions That Don’t Have Easy Answers

I love it when a TV show leaves me with ethical questions that have no clear answers, and Law & Order: SVU is often the best at that.

While this season has faltered a lot on this front, it seems to be on its way back, judging from Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 16.

I have mixed feelings about how the case ended, but for the most part, this was one of the strongest stories of the season.

It Was Refreshing That New Technology Wasn’t Demonized

I loved the fact that the case began with the cops looking at a Twitch avatar that was likely AI-generated.

Far too many shows treat AI as the new devil, often giving us one-sided stories about its dangers that are far from accurate.

Benson’s investigation of the Twitch stream should have included Noah — it would have been natural to ask her teenage son about these types of avatars in order to get a greater understanding — but at least it showed that there is more to online tech than teens getting addicted to it or people failing to think critically.

That said, this case raised an ethical question early on that I wish had been explored more.

April Didn’t Seem Like She Wanted Her Case Investigated

When Benson and Rollins caught up with April, she was reluctant to open an investigation, but the cops kept pushing.

This is typical of Law & Order: SVU, especially lately, but something about it bothered me.

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Benson is big on giving survivors agency, as she should be. The loss of control over your body is one of the most traumatic aspects of sexual assault, so allowing survivors the ability to choose what happens next can help them heal.

But if a survivor says no to even having their case investigated and the cops refuse to accept that, that’s the opposite of giving them agency. Benson and Rollins’ behavior seemed a little too pushy, and that didn’t seem right.

It felt almost as if the scenes with April were designed to let Benson overcome all of April’s objections so she could proceed with the case, which wasn’t cool.

If April didn’t want to investigate, that should have been the end of it. And considering that Severson ultimately sexually assaulted three women, SVU could have kept investigating and might have found another victim who was more willing to talk.

The Issue of Therapist Abusing Patients Was An Important One

The use of psychedelics in PTSD treatment is a real, cutting-edge technology that is under investigation. I’m not up on the latest research, but when I was in social work school several years ago, research assistants were struggling to get funding to look into it more deeply.

That’s why I had hoped that SVU had drawn more of a line between the idea that the treatment itself was too risky and predators within the field who preyed on these extremely vulnerable patients in clinical trials.

It is difficult enough to conduct research in this area because too many people still assume psychedelics have no medicinal value, without media suggesting that the treatment itself should not be studied.

That said, Benson and Carisi were absolutely correct that the company conducting this research was not doing so ethically if it wasn’t prioritizing patient safety or even bothering to double-check the videos to make sure patients were not being mistreated.

This particular study method sounded extremely dangerous. People who are unable to remember clearly what happened after the drug wears off would be at risk of all sorts of abuse.

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Going after the company was a bold move, but one that made sense. I couldn’t help thinking that CBS’ Madeline Matlock would have approved of this lawsuit.

The CEO’s excuse that they didn’t have the manpower to check whether patients were safe was flimsy. If she couldn’t protect patient safety, she had no business doing the research, period.

The judge’s decision that removing that CEO was a sufficient safeguard was frustrating. His logic was that the bad actors had been removed, and he didn’t understand the systemic issues.

I didn’t understand why he made his ruling during a sidebar instead of stating his ideas publicly.

I get that he wanted buy-in from the defense attorney, but it seemed weird and somewhat shady the way he did it.

Anyone Else Feel Like They Missed Something With Curry’s Storyline?

I know Curry turned down Tynan’s offer earlier on Law & Order Season 27, but I didn’t understand why she was no longer part of Benson’s unit.

We don’t need two captains in the same unit, so I guess it made sense, but I was confused — was I the only one?

It seemed like this was a demotion, although she was in charge of a group of officers, so it wasn’t much of one. In any case, I didn’t understand why she expected to be let in on what Griffin was doing.

Speaking of which, his final scene was a hell of a twist. I didn’t expect him to turn on Tynan, never mind consider sacrificing his father’s legacy.

What did you think, SVU fanatics?

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