star trek - Does any science-fiction handle the ethics of teleportation ("kill and clone")?

There are various ideas behind teleportation but the top two seem to be:

Disassemble someone and transport the exact person (matter / energy) to a new location and reassemble.

Clone someone at a new location (different matter) and destroy the original (or destroy the original first and then create the clone).

The difference I am making here is that in the first case the person (whatever that is) is transported whereas in the second case a duplicate lives on and the original is killed.

My main question is: does any science-fiction deal with this apparently ethical issue (suicide and cloning)?

In Star Trek for example, the second option seems usually to be the norm as evidenced by a character like Thomas Riker. However, the first option was also seen once in the Realm of Fear episode when Reg Barclay retains consciousness during transportation. But I am not aware of any episode which deals with the ethics.

A related question: would anyone really be able to tell the difference between these two methods?

Answer

It took me a few minutes to remember where I saw it, but there it is. An episode of the Outer Limits called Think Like a Dinosaur has dealt with exactly this question. It is based on a novelette by the same name by James Patrick Kelly.

This issue is also mentioned in Ilium/Olympos by Dan Simmons, where the Earth is covered by a network of "fax nodes", which can instantaneously "fax" a copy of a person to another node, destroying the original.

Comments

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