An Ethical Framework for the Design, Development, Implementation, and Assessment of Drones Used in Public Healthcare

Dylan Cawthorne,Aimee Robbins-Van Wynsberghe

doi:10.1007/s11948-020-00233-1

Dylan Cawthorne, Aimee Robbins-Van Wynsberghe

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00233-1

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Abstract

The use of drones in public healthcare is suggested as a means to improve efficiency under constrained resources and personnel. This paper begins by framing drones in healthcare as a social experiment where ethical guidelines are needed to protect those impacted while fully realizing the benefits the technology offers. Then we propose an ethical framework to facilitate the design, development, implementation, and assessment of drones used in public healthcare. Given the healthcare context, we structure the framework according to the four bioethics principles: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice, plus a fifth principle from artificial intelligence ethics: explicability. These principles are abstract which makes operationalization a challenge; therefore, we suggest an approach of translation according to a values hierarchy whereby the top-level ethical principles are translated into relevant human values within the domain. The resulting framework is an applied ethics tool that facilitates awareness of relevant ethical issues during the design, development, implementation, and assessment of drones in public healthcare.

Highlights

In recent years the number, capabilities, and applications of non-military drones have grown exponentially, surpassing military use in 2013 (Choi-Fitzpatrick et al 2016)
We suggest the ethical framework as an appropriate ethical constraint, and that the creation of overarching ethical constraints adhere to the four bioethics principles (Beauchamp and Childress 2001) and the artificial intelligence (AI) ethics principle of explicability (Floridi et al 2018)
Combining the ethical framework, anticipatory methods, gradual introduction, and building in feedback mechanisms—so lessons can be learned from these experiments—could prove to be the best approach

Summary

Introduction

In recent years the number, capabilities, and applications of non-military drones have grown exponentially, surpassing military use in 2013 (Choi-Fitzpatrick et al 2016). The concept of ‘technology as a social experiment’ is defined as one where “only limited operational experience” exists, and benefits and risks cannot be assessed based on experience (van de Poel 2016) This requires a proactive ethical approach to guide the research and development of drones used instrumentally in public health, due to the emergent nature of their implementation, and the high stakes. A risk of high levels of trust in the government and technology developers is that drones could be pushed onto the public in a paternalistic way (see the discussion about technological paternalism in the section on capability caution) This risk can be mitigated through the inclusion of a diverse set of impacted stakeholders (Friedman and Hendry 2019) and even critics (van de Poel 2000) during the design and implementation process— a key element in VSD. This case study supports the approach in the current work and provides one example of how the framework can be applied in practice

Strengths and Limitations of the Framework

Findings

Conclusion and Future Work