[AgentZero]

I've found discussions like these tend to suffer from a lack of proper definitions, so for the record:
Sentience - The ability to receive input from "senses".
Intelligence - The ability to process said input and produce output.
Self-Awareness - Well, an awareness of self. It involves the understanding that one exists, as an individual separate from others, with one's own private thoughts.
Life - Something with the ability to grow, reproduce and adapt to it's surroundings, and according to strict definitions, a metabolism.

Now, ignoring the whole "morality is relative" argument, according to our current morality, would it be wrong to destroy sentient computers? Every form of life on the planet is sentient, and we have no problem destroying just about any form of life that isn't our own (morally speaking, of course).

And while some computers surely could be considered sentient, intelligent machines, as far as I'm aware, no one has come up with a self-aware computer yet. But when we come up with one, then we'll surely be wandering into a moral gray area, since now we're talking about destroying something that is aware of it's own existence, and that's just creepy if nothing else.

And what if we get around to creating artificial life? Well, if it's mechanical, it's not life, and thus the best we can hope for is intelligent, self-aware machines. But what happens if we artificially create real, biological life and it evolves into an intelligent, self-aware life form? Would they not see us as gods? And if so, what sort of moral code would be required of a god?