26 Votes in Poll
Yes, without question. The Voyager EMH proved the program met all the requirements to constitute a self-aware AI, so it stands to reason all of the others would too. And by Starfleet and the Federation law, that means they have rights as well as certain protections, allowing them to be spared such treatment if they didn't want it. Technically, both would be in violation, potentially gravely, of their own rules and laws doing otherwise as they were shown.
I mean, if the Exocomps just potentially being similarly self-aware themselves raised such a hullabaloo over their own rights and protections, then the EMHs definitely should get the same luxuries too.
(But then that was always part of VOY's point with the EMH--exploring how the Trek universe was being slow to realize even holograms could constitute as artificial lifeforms in the right circumstances too, and thus negligent in giving them as many rights as they probably should, the whole message of the episode in question).
Besides, repurposing EMHs of all things for mining always seemed like a really weird idea to me. It'd make more sense to just custom program from scratch a hologram to be explicitly used for mining, not force another program never designed for that function to do it instead. But holograms don't exactly strike me as more efficient anyway, given that to make them work, you'd also have to set up a fairly extensive network of holo-projectors within the mine itself, a mine that's going to be constantly changing shape as work progresses, ensure all of those projectors are consistently powered, as well as ensure the mining causes minimal to no interference to the projectors, or else the holograms are going to be glitching out on the regular and not be terribly useful...something that the nature of mining is probably going to be difficult to guarantee enough for the needed level of reliability.
Really, some sort of autonomous worker drone with only a basic AI--or even just be fully remote controlled by trained operators stationed nearby--would make more sense to me.
What do you think?