Gastmans Chris, Sinibaldi Edoardo, Lerner Richard, Yáñez Miguel, Kovács László, Palazzani Laura, Pegoraro Renzo, Vandemeulebroucke Tijs
Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Centre for Convergent Technologies, Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy.
Bioethics. 2024 Nov;38(9):787-795. doi: 10.1111/bioe.13322. Epub 2024 Jun 10.
Our society, in general, and health care, in particular, faces notable challenges due to the emergence of innovative digital technologies. The use of socially assistive robots in aged care is a particular digital application that provokes ethical reflection. The answers we give to the ethical questions associated with socially assistive robots are framed by ontological and anthropological considerations of what constitutes human beings and how the meaning of being human relates to how these robots are conceived. Religious beliefs and secular worldviews, each of which may participate fully in pluralist societies, have an important responsibility in this foundational debate, as anthropological theories can be inspired by religious and secular viewpoints. This article identifies seven anthropological considerations grounded in the synthesis of biblical scriptures, Roman Catholic documents, and recent research literature. We highlight the inspirational quality of these anthropological considerations when dealing with ethical issues regarding the development and use of socially assistive robots in aged care. With this contribution, we aim to foster a global and inclusive dialogue on digitalization in aged care that deeply challenges our basic understanding of what constitutes a human being and how this notion relates to machine artefacts.
总体而言，我们的社会，尤其是医疗保健领域，正面临着因创新数字技术的出现而带来的显著挑战。在老年护理中使用社交辅助机器人是一种特别的数字应用，它引发了伦理思考。我们对与社交辅助机器人相关的伦理问题给出的答案，是由关于人类构成以及人类存在的意义如何与这些机器人的构想方式相关联的本体论和人类学考量所构建的。宗教信仰和世俗世界观，每一种都可以在多元社会中充分参与，在这场基础性辩论中负有重要责任，因为人类学理论可以受到宗教和世俗观点的启发。本文确定了基于圣经经文、罗马天主教文件和近期研究文献综合而成的七点人类学考量。我们强调在处理老年护理中社交辅助机器人的开发和使用所涉及的伦理问题时，这些人类学考量的启发性特质。通过这一贡献，我们旨在促进一场关于老年护理数字化的全球包容性对话，这场对话将深刻挑战我们对人类构成以及这一概念与机器制品如何相关的基本理解。
