Journal of Northeastern University(Social Science) ›› 2015, Vol. 17 ›› Issue (6): 561-566.DOI: 10.15936/j.cnki.1008-3758.2015.06.003

• Scientific and Technological Philosophy • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Study on the Ethical Risks of the Aged Care Robots

LI Xiao-yan   

  1. (School of Humanities, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China)
  • Received:2015-06-20 Revised:2015-06-20 Online:2015-11-25 Published:2015-11-25
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Abstract: Given the ever increasing rate of global population aging and the relative shortage of medical care resources, the development and use of the aged care robots will bring about great hope and prospect in improving the physical and mental health of the elderly. The aged care robots can assist the elderly in daily tasks, help monitor their behavior and health, and provide them with companionship. In the meantime, however, the aged care robots can also endanger the social contact, privacy, freedom and safety of the elderly. Roboticists, ethicists, doctors, caregivers and the elderly themselves should make joint efforts to diminish or prevent these risks. Such efforts can be mainly divided into three aspects—designing the aged care robots through value-sensitive design approaches, stipulating reasonably the ways the aged care robots are used, and understanding correctly the essence of the aged care robots and their relationship with human beings.

Key words: population aging, aged care robot, ethical risk, risk prevention

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