The ethics of enslaving replicants in Blade Runner

Blade Runner

Enslaving the replicants is completely unethical. Even if the replicants did not completely resemble human beings, like they do in Blade Runner, enslaving them would be wrong. The replicants are like humans not only in appearance but also in their psychological makeup. Their ability to feel emotions and express affection show that they experience pain and suffering as well. Creating a race of creatures like the replicants with the sole purpose of enslaving them is a repulsive act and one that is depicted darkly in Blade Runner.

Deckhard's realization that his memories may have been planted suggests that all memory may be fallible. Even if Deckhard were definitively human, his memories could have been altered. For example, manipulating the brain or using non-invasive techniques like hypnosis makes memory planting or memory manipulation possible. Human beings are taught to trust our memories because they are our only link with the past, our only means of interacting with past events and learning from them. However, a memory can easily be distorted and are seriously unreliable. Two persons can experience the same event and remember it differently.

3. Viewers who only saw the version of Blade Runner released in 1982 would deny that Rick Deckhard is human. Blade running involves killing replicants, and if Deckhard had been one himself it is unlikely that he would have fulfilled the job well. Moreover, Deckhard comes across as the only beacon of hope for humanity. The bleak vision of the future that Ridley Scott conveys in Blade Runner becomes bleaker still when the final cut of the movie was released in 2007. The final director's cut, which Scott supported as his ideal version of the story, directly depicts Deckhard as a replicant.