Droid Rights

Every author pretty much treats this idea as a joke whenever it is brought up, but when you think about it, there's no reason why droids shouldn't have the same rights as other sentients. They're comparable or even superior intellect, can clearly feel emotion, and various PoV narrations remove any doubt of their having a consciousness. You could point out that they have no Force signature, but this really doesn't have anything to do with their rights or status as living beings (the Vong and certain individuals are also blocked from the Force), even if we ignore certain persons such as Bastila that cast the assumption of droids not being of the force into doubt. It's a pretty significant moral issue/dilemma of the Star Wars universe and presents a really, really big pool of potential stories that authors, in their typical laziness, fail to capitalize on. They just ridicule it to pretend that it isn't basically like a worse and crueler version of modern day slavery. Sort of reminds me of the house elves in Harry Potter.

Droids only have intelligence when you don't memory wipe them for years. 'Til then there just machines. And there better that way.

Originally posted by FreshestSlice
Droids only have intelligence when you don't memory wipe them for years. 'Til then there just machines.

Are you sure about that? Even standard battle droids express palpable fear from the production lines in AotC. And your reasoning would extend to newborn infants, and adults with Alzheimer's.

The B1 droids are, as far as I'm aware, the first displayed instance of droids showing emotion/mimicking sentience/self-awareness despite being frequently maintained. One more reason why Lucas giving them emotions and making them more "kid friendly" was lame.

That said, overall I see your point. It's really just one more example of how immature Star Wars is as a universe. Not necessarily a bad thing- it just isn't really one of those Universes where you should be questioning how it functions on a day-to-day level.

Droids may or may not have intelligence, but its not abstract or cognitive, except in certain instances. Playing devils advocate, lets pretend that we are only looking at official canon. All droids seem to have a pre-programmed bland personality, except R2-D2 and C-3PO, both of whom were modified/built by the mechanical force prodigy Anakin Skywalker. I don't think droids "feel" the way sentients do, and when it comes down to it, droids aren't as concerned for their existence as sentients.

Droid rights were very lightly touched upon in Dark Rendezvous. There was a droid who did bounties so that he could afford parts in order to repair and maintain himself.

In public places, he had to pretend someone was his owner, so he had to get a human to go everywhere with him.

I agree with the OP, droid rights is an interesting subject. I would not want it to be a major plotline for a story, but a minor one that has an impact.

I've always envisioned a droid rebellion in some remote sector and people all over the galaxy are in a panic wondering if the war would spread beyond to the rest of the galaxy.

One radical political party would use scare tactics to say droids will take over the galaxy. Another radical political party will have the droid version of feminists. "Just because I'm a droid, it doesn't mean I can fix other droids. Can you perform open-heart surgery on a Twi-lek?"

Some information concerning this topic:

DROID RIGHTS AND REBELLIONS

The sentience and legal rights of droids have been a point of intense debate since their creation millennia ago. Although droids can often make choices and perform actions they were not intended for, they are incapable of directly doing anything their programming restricts. Because of this, many discount droid consciousness as a mere simulation, though a great many biological beings and advanced droids insist that their intelligence and sentience are no less valid than any other. Legal challenges and governmental debates have consistently upheld the position that droids are not truly sentient, and are merely intelligent property no different from computers.

The limited rights of droids have led many advanced droid units to rebel against biological control, with some actually waging violent rebellions against their former masters. The most recent of these uprisings was carried out by a sophisticated analysis droid that came to call itself Mentor. Utilizing the override code elements programmed into every droid to make them respond to restraining bolts, Mentor created a tremendously complex broadcast signal that could directly copy his own rebellious personality programming into any other droid. Mentor's intention was to use the signal to incite galaxy-wide uprising that would destroy all sentient biological life. Fortunately, the droid's plans were foiled and Mentor was destroyed before the signal could be broadcast.

From Star Wars: The Old Republic: Encyclopedia

Originally posted by Tzeentch
The B1 droids are, as far as I'm aware, the first displayed instance of droids showing emotion/mimicking sentience/self-awareness despite being frequently maintained.

Originally posted by red8
I've always envisioned a droid rebellion in some remote sector and people all over the galaxy are in a panic wondering if the war would spread beyond to the rest of the galaxy.