Robot Care Ethics Between Autonomy and Vulnerability: Coupling Principles and Practices in Autonomous Systems for...

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
• Ethics of Care
• Healthcare Technology

Background:

• Increasing integration of robotics and AI in elderly care and healthcare.
• Ethical issues and practical questions arise regarding the definition and design of
• care
• software.
• Existing ethical design approaches for care robots, notably Aimee van Wynsberghe's reliance on Joan Tronto's ethics of care, are critically examined.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically examine existing ethical design approaches for care robots.
• To propose an alternative, principled approach to the ethical design of care robots.
• To integrate traditional care ethics with new principles for enhanced debate.

Main Methods:

• Critical examination of existing literature on care ethics and robot design.
• Development of an alternative ethical framework for care robots.
• Focus on the principles of autonomy and vulnerability.

Main Results:

• Identified limitations in current non-principled approaches to care robot ethics.
• Proposed a novel ethical framework centered on autonomy and vulnerability.
• Suggested a revised bottom-up approach to care ethics.

Conclusions:

• The proposed framework offers a new lens for ethical design of care robots.
• Integrating principles of autonomy and vulnerability addresses key ethical challenges.
• The framework enhances the discourse on ethical considerations in AI and robotics for healthcare.