sentient

Experiencing sensation, thought, or feeling.

Consider fish, who are apparently sentient yet cognitively extremely primitive in comparison with humans.

Obviously, other morally relevant considerations would apply to the case of a sentient fetus, as by acquiring sentience it acquires interests and moral status.

Able to consciously perceive through the use of sense faculties.

Possessing human-like awareness and intelligence.

While I had heard such talk before, I had always felt that sentient robots were in the realm of science fiction. But now, from someone I respected [Ray Kurzweil], I was hearing a strong argument that they were a near-term possibility.

Not even a microbe? I don't want to blow up something that could evolve into a sentient species in a couple of billion years.

Lifeform with the capability to feel sensation, such as pain.

An intelligent, self-aware being.

The merpeople and the sentients who lived on the beach often hitched rides on these creatures, steering them by pressure on exposed nerve centers.