I actually rather enjoyed it as a dramatic vignette of an inverse version of the Milgram experiment. Instead of protocol leading the subject to abandon empathy and dehumanize a human being, the opposite happens: Empathy leads the subject to humanize that which is (arguably?) not human, despite protocol.
How we read Do Androids Dream with Electric Sheep, or any other novel by Phillip Dick about androids? Or maybe seen Bladerunner? He frequently [and effectively] works with this topic a lot.
