IMHO it should be illegal to develop an artificial mind capable of consciousness. There are a lot of good reasons to avoid this, not just that it could be potentially unethical to subject such a mind to torture/pain.

A super-intelligent artificial mind is probably going to come up with its own agenda and convince us to work in its interest and potentially against our own. Given the state of computer security today, can you imagine how easily it could spread as a worm?