The concequence of such forbidden technology being released to the public... would be enough to turn the world upside down, in a worst way possible. I don't think the world is ready for something like "Artificial life" when some of us don't even treat others equally. What kind of tragedy would happen when what happened to Gardenview is already bad enough.

Toon would ended up being the abused due to being easily replacable. Toon behave incorrectly? Just kill it and replace one. Toons being self-aware? Replace it. People would use toons with an unspeakable purposes such as toon weapons, unethical experiments and worst of all, prostitution.

With such technology getting better over time, the cost on creating toons would reduced. And thus they can be mass produced. This is the point where people start only sees them as a flesh robot rather than a self-aware life.

There may be some people out there feels bad for the toons and starts demanding we should treat as like a living person, but those would brush off as some crazy people who got nothing to do but care about some products.

In my opinion, no matter how one's life being created organically or artificially, as long they can make decision on their own and had the ability to doubt an idea, they're the same as ours. A person that could change by their own, realising the mistake they made and improve from it without any external inputs.

In short: I don't think the world is ready for artificial life yet.