The Replicants Are Coming.

In the industry of artificial creations, moral dilemmas are a daily occurrence. These issues range from the most mundane of ‘What if?’s to the question of human rights and whether or not artificial humans should receive them. ‘What if?’ What if we made artificial humans so human that they turned on us for it? The moral dilemmas include whether these artificial people should be awarded human rights, the acceptability of their lives as little more than slaves and if it is right to play, for want of a better word, ‘God’.

Artificial humans would be bio-organisms. They breathe, think and function like humans. The only difference is that the artificial humans would be genetically engineered. It does not matter to those who make them that they have emotions and feelings just like ‘real’ humans. As artificial humans, they would have no rights that any human would. The question of course is should they? Should artificial humans have human rights? Artificial humans will have the ability to think and feel. They could even develop their own emotional responses and collect memories of their time alive.

Androids are built for a purpose. They have a set task, a job to do. They have no choice in this process so it begs to be asked: Are they slaves and if so, is this ok? A person who was given a task, no matter if it was pleasing or not, and made to complete this task without choice would be considered a slave. As slavery was abolished many years ago, it would appear that slavery is wrong. Slavery is defined as any person owning another person. What this leads to is the debate over whether artificial humans are human enough to come under the term ‘slave’. This causes a moral issue for anyone who believes them to be so. To make an artificial human knowing that they are a slave and not perhaps a servant would be morally wrong.

Religion is a very important part of life for many people. In any corporation that designs and creates artificial humans, the workers run the risk of crossing the line and ‘playing God’. As such, the ethics behind styling one’s self as God become an issue. The debate on whether we, as humans, have the right to create life has raged for a long time. Many people believe ultimate power of creation, used to meddle and tamper with the forces of life, is immoral. All corporations which make artificial life regardless of this obviously do not agree or are likely not to even care. If there is such a person, it is simply not right to imitate God but only to venerate him.

Artificial creation is a delicate subject. The possible complications which may arise are able to seriously jeopardise the morality of the human race. Creating artificial humans may lead to regression and the reformation of slavery. These artificial humans have no rights that humans do and no freedoms. Do they not deserve them? They think therefore they are and should that not be enough? The existence of artificial people throws the natural definition of ‘human’ out the window. It would seem that our imitations of God and His divine ability to create life are simply not good enough nor are they morally right. These are the issues we must face if we are to create artificial life.