Isaac Asimov paved the way for science fiction writers with respect to artificial ethics with his three laws of robotics, but others are taking a serious look at this topic as well as artificial consciousness. Having written an unreadable novel based on the latter topic, I have found interesting this review on SlashDot of Artificial Ethics: Moral Conscience, Awareness and Consciencousness (sic) by Jacques Pitrat. I assume that misspelling is Amazon.com's rather than the author's. (Asimov was more concise with his titles and they were easier to spell, I Robot.)

Here's the reviewer's pitch for the book, though it is $80 and not available, yet:

For people interested in robotics, ethics or science fiction, J.Pitrat's book give interesting food for thought by explaining how indeed artificial systems can be conscious, and why they should be, and what that would mean in the future.

Here is the SlashDot article. The book provides insights into artificial consciousness and ethics, the scope of the software effort required, and strategies for success.