When androids become intelligent enough to equal humans in brainpower, cognitive function, sophistication, and, above all, personality, will they become upset when we tell them that although they are exactly like us except for their mechanical nature, they do not have a "soul?" Is that really fair? If I was a robot whose brain worked just like a human's, who had emotions and personality and sophistication, would I be upset when people suggest that I do not have some intangible spark of "life" even though I am equivalent to them in consciousness? I think I would be pretty upset. How would you like it if someone told you that you didn't have a soul and treated you like an inferior because of it?
Sentient creatures of equal cognitive abilities must have equal rights as one another, whether they be man, machine, alien, or heavily genetically-modified transhuman creature. That includes the right to say, if they believe that a soul exists, "I have a soul, just like you."