Memories of the Body
Tuttle, Lisa. "Memories of the Body." Interzone #22 (Winter 1987-88). Reprinted Cybersex anthology, which see; for collection, translations, and other reprints, see Internet Speculative Fiction Database, as of 1 February 2023 at link here.[1]
In the fairly near future, it might be possible to work out intimate issues of love and death, sex and violence by having sex with the beloved and then murdering that beloved, or a realistic facsimile thereof (called a "fax"). They may be "still only machines, not much better than animated dolls" (Cybersex p. 217). For the violence part, anyway, "You murdered an illusion," what you thought the beloved victim was. "Do you really think that's the same as killing a person? You know the faxes don't feel anything — they don't think — it's all programming, not life" (p. 218).
But what if someone is determined "to have only the best, never to settle for something which wasn't 'real'" and the someone has enough money to avoid having to be "content with a make-believe murder"? And the story takes some interesting turns on the theme of murder mystery and "the perfect crime" (pp. 224, 225).
See for the theme of total prosthesis (cf. and contrast "Masks"), and human brains in a variation on a robot body (cf. and contrast "The Ship Who Sang" and books linked at that entry).
RDE, finishing, 1Feb23