In Artificial Intelligence, the claim was made several times by different characters that David and his feelings were not 'real.' There were 2 scenes that forced us to wonder about that: the scene where David's mother abandoned him in the woods, and the scene where the audience at the Flesh Fair decided not to kill David.
Would it be morally wrong to abandon him in the woods, or kill him at the Flesh Fair? If so, does that prove that his feelings are 'real'? If not, why not? Should we just treat David the same as any old electronic thing?