An bioroid is a synthetic humanoid created from biological materials, not to be confused with an android (a synthetic humanoid made from mechanical components.) Bioroids are also called gene-splices, vat-humans, replicants, and artificial people, among less pleasant terms. Bioroids cost from about $200,000 to $1,000,000 each, more for custom-designed prototypes. Because of the expense involved in bioroid creation, most are either ordered by very wealthy individuals to satisfy private whimsy or by major corporations to fulfill a need for specialized personnel. It's not yet cost-effective to replace regular human workers with bioroids, but science is working on it.

Because bioroids are typically produced using fast-growth clone tanks, their actual ages differ from their biological ages – they'll usually be about 15 to 17 years younger than they look. Furthermore, some bioroids are designed to age more rapidly than humans. Some look perfectly human, while others look more anthropomorphic in nature due to the DNA modifications used in their construction and their intended appearance.

Bioroids are produced by tinkering with human DNA to produce the desired results, then using in-vitro fertilization techniques and artificial wombs to produce a child. After the first prototypes are produced, mass production begins, using clone-tank force-growth techniques to grow the embryo to adulthood in a few months. As it floats in the clone tank its brain is hooked up to a mainframe computer running sophisticated dream simulation programs. The bioroid develops in virtual reality and experiences simulated childhood, education and job training. Six months to a year after entering the tank, the bioroid's socialization and education is complete, and it is released, a thinking being.

The legal status of bioroids remains hazy. In some areas they are citizens with full human rights, but many of the companies who produce them for sale maintain they are not human (most bioroids use a sizable quotient of artificial or animal DNA, if only for this reason) and laws governing Artificial Intelligences instead apply to them: they can be owned and specific designs can be trademarked.

International conventions adhered to in Europe, North America and Japan agree that bioroids are artificial lifeforms in the same category as AIs: they may have limited citizenship, but belong to the creator corporation (or whoever purchased them). They must contain a certain amount of nonhuman DNA, must be sterile, and may only be contracted to corporations (not individuals). Of course, there is a thriving trade in black market bioroids sold to individuals, and the definition of 'corporation' can be surprisingly flexible when the right financial inducement is involved. Most Asian governments have no official laws regarding the 'rights' of bioroids or artificial intelligences; in point of fact, they rarely argue in favor of giving them any rights at all. Likewise, South American and African governments are almost unilaterally against the concept of artificial entities as deserving of rights beyond property. The continent of Australia, however, has been considered a 'safe harbor' for bioroids, with New Zealand the first country to grant them (and other artificial intelligences) full rights as sentient entities, including the ability to apply for full citizenship.

In the United States, the concern of whether artificially created beings have rights beyond property or animals has been debated vigorously, and at times, violently, over the past fifty years. Religious groups often either believe that bioroids are an abomination of science outright, or at best a trained animal, rather than a thinking being. Most corporations would quietly prefer that prices on bioroid production continue to fall to the point where they can downsize human staff and conduct business without all of those pesky 'human rights' issues. Others note that many acts illegal to perform on humans are not illegal to perform on those classified as bioroids. And so forth.