Is consenting to digital duplication ethically distinctive? A bioethical analysis

Digital duplication refers to the creation of interactive systems that simulate individuals, whether living or deceased and has become a widely discussed topic in the ethics of artificial intelligence. One central issue concerns the feasibility of consent to digital duplication, with some authors arguing that digital duplicates raise unique challenges for consent. Drawing on established debates in bioethics, this paper questions that uniqueness thesis by showing that the difficulties associated with digital duplication largely mirror well-known issues in the medical domain. Building on this analysis, it argues that the challenges posed by digital duplication do not genuinely undermine consent and presents consent models from the bioethical literature that are informative for the ethics of digital duplication.