The former EMH of the USS Voyager first activated in 2373, who due to circumstances and gifted software design gained self awareness and sentience. Formerly he was only known as The Doctor. After the death of his creator Dr Lewis Zimmerman, The Doctor chose to take the name of his creator and proverbially father to honor his memory.
Dr Zimmerman was not only a most creative and accomplished physician growing significantly beyond his programming through his own experiences, but a prolific artist, writer and Photonic Rights advocate. After decades of the Federation failing to recognize others of his kind as having rights he became a stateman as well. Elected as Federation Councilman in 2438, Dr Zimmerman set to work immediately to draft a bill set to change the path of the Federation.
In his first submission of a bill which he carefully composed over most of year, Councilman Zimmerman proposed to formally change the definition of sentient life to include all sentient life, no matter its origin such that sufficient sentience could be determined. This small redefinition proposed sweeping changes to many practices and laws currently in place and would answer a question argued in Federation courts for more than half a century for individual rights for Artificial Intelligence which had risen with greater frequency as the computing power of the Federation continued to express Moore's law.
- 279th UFP Council Bill P.L. 116658A also known as Zimmerman's Bill