4 ideas
Yod, the tenth cyborg built by the scientist Avram to defend the Jewish free town of Tikva, concludes that no more beings like him should be made to serve as weapons. Shira, his human lover, then has the chance to rebuild him from the surviving notes and chooses to destroy them instead.
In 17th-century Prague, Rabbi Judah Loew (the Maharal) forms Joseph from clay to guard the ghetto against pogroms stirred up by blood-libel accusations. Joseph develops desires of his own, including longing for a woman named Chava. Once the danger passes, the rabbi unmakes him, because he was only ever licensed to exist as an instrument of defense.
A being built with real consciousness but designed for a single purpose, such as killing to protect a community, has its ends chosen for it without consent. Its capacity to feel and reason makes that assignment morally unbearable. The more successfully a maker gives a tool a self, the less legitimate it becomes to own or dispose of it as a tool.
In the book's future, multinational corporations ('multis') run sealed, climate-controlled domes. Employment status determines rank, housing, legal rights and even custody of children. Shira loses her son Ari to her ex-husband because the corporation's internal rules decide the case, while everyone outside the domes and free towns is left to the polluted, gang-ruled Glop.