Data: a robot or a human?

Last Tuesday, we were watching an episode from the hit TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation. The episode is about the cyborg, Data who is order by the Federation to be a subject for a research which may take artitical intelligence to a difficult. But problem is that this might lead to the termination of Data. The captain of the ship was angry about this decision because he views Data as a human despite him being a cyborg. This decision about Data being either human or cyborg eventually went to trial. During the trial, both the prosecutor and defendant good points. The prosecutor made several points stating the data can be turn off with a switch and did not have flesh and bones. The Defendant made a strong point that Data have the power of free will despite being program to do so. The defendant and the prosecutor showed they have a personal relationship with Data as if he was a actual human.