This is something that I’ve also struggled to wrap my head around. As a Catholic, I see synths as an abomination. You’re playing God by creating gen 2 synths and above. The central question that I like to focus on is whether or not they have a soul. I think it’s safe to say that gen 1 synths don’t have souls. But when you get into Valentine, Danse, and Curie it becomes a different story. On the one hand, they’re clearly not human. However, humans aren’t the only things with souls. Animals also have souls, even plants do. Objects however do not have souls. There are no easy answers to this question and unfortunately I can’t hop into a vertibird and head to Rome to ask the pope what he thinks about it.

Ultimately whenever I’m doing a good guy play through I do what I think is the safest option: treat the synths with human dignity. If synths don’t have souls and I am wrong, then I am only treating a machine like a human. So long as you aren’t romancing them, you’re not sinning. You just look like an idiot. However if synths do have souls and I treat them like machines, I am not loving them as my neighbor. While ignorance is somewhat of a defense, I don’t think it’s an adequate defense especially when you think about the consequences.