Ethical framework of assistive devices: review and reflection

• Published in: Robotics and biomimetics Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 19 - 9
• Main Authors: Mansouri, Nazanin, Goher, Khaled, Hosseini, Seyed Ebrahim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.01.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Costs; Engineering; Ethical standards; Ethics; Geriatrics; Health care; Older people; Review; Robotics and Automation; Robots; Systems Biology; Robot ethics; Ethics concerns; Assistive medical robots; Robot ethics framework; Assistive walking device framework; Older adults; Ethics issues
• ISSN: 2197-3768; 2197-3768
• DOI: 10.1186/s40638-017-0074-2

The population of ageing is growing significantly over the world, and there is an emerging demand for better healthcare services and more care centres. Innovations of Information and Communication Technology has resulted in development of various types of assistive robots to fulfil elderly’s needs and independency, whilst carrying out daily routine tasks. This makes it vital to have a clear understanding of elderly’s needs and expectations from assistive robots. This paper addresses current ethical issues to understand elderly’s prime needs. Also, we consider other general ethics with the purpose of applying these theories to form a proper ethics framework. In the ethics framework, the ethical concerns of senior citizens will be prioritized to satisfy elderly’s needs and also to diminish related expenses to healthcare services.