Assistive Care Robots and Older Adults: Employing a Care Ethics Lens

Rachel Hewitt

doi:10.7202/1077637ar

Abstract

To date, ethical critiques of the use of assistive healthcare robotics have not closely examined the purported care relationship between such robots and their users. Drawing upon the work of care ethics scholars, I argue that authentic care relies upon capacities inherently reciprocal and responsive in nature, which ultimately precludes socially assistive robots from being useful caring tools.

Highlights

Care of a rapidly aging population has presented numerous challenges to health systems worldwide
This paper focuses on robotics technology that has been designed to carry out complex human-robot interactions
I have appealed to the limited nature of existing socially assistive robots (SARs) models to demonstrate that do they have restricted practical application in the completion of relevant caring tasks, but more fundamentally, that they will fall short in caring for human beings because they are non-human

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Care of a rapidly aging population has presented numerous challenges to health systems worldwide. The limited, pre-programmed interactive skills of SARs do not lend much confidence in their ability to recognize and respond to the personal factors that come to bear on a person’s care needs In light of this definition of care, I argue that socially assistive robots do not currently possess any of the capabilities required to provide substantial and comprehensive care, as discussed earlier, that addresses the care needs of the older adults they have been designed to assist. While one could argue that SARs can help carry out tasks that we recognize as part of traditional caring duties, current robots do not possess the shared humanity that makes possible things like “empathic witnessing, listening to the illness narrative, and providing moral solidarity through sustained engagement” (23 p.1551). Those providing care ought to possess the qualities and capabilities that allow them to appreciate the same caring comforts, and to recognize the ever-evolving care needs of the care receiver

CONCLUSION

Conflicts of Interest None to declare