Ethical Challenges in the Use of Social Service Robots for Elderly People
Abstract
Socially assistive robots are increasingly discussed as solutions in care and domestic use for the support of senior adults; however, this raises ethical questions which hitherto have not been considered or were not predictable. The most important questions are those of privacy and data protection, safety and responsibility as well as involvement of vulnerable persons and deception. Consequently, the ethical principles of nonmaleficence, beneficence, autonomy and fairness should be transposed to robotics. Clear answers and solutions are not yet available for every ethical challenge in robotics; however, the development of ethical guidelines for deployment of robots and research in the field of social service robots (SSR) are essential steps in order to embed ethics into dealing with socially assistive robots. This article provides some practical suggestions on this issue from a robotics project.
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“Risks can be mitigated by increasing transparency in data collection, protection of data through legal registration and ethics boards, and emphasizing informed consent from older adults (Körtner, 2016).”
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- Authors
- Körtner, T.
- Affiliations
- Akademie für Altersforschung am Haus der Barmherzigkeit (AT)
- Corresponding author
- Körtner, T.
- Venue
- Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie
- Published
- 2016-05-25
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 303-307
- ISSN
- 0948-6704 (ISSN-L)
- 1435-1269
- OpenAlex
- W2404111443
- Cited by
- 99
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 11.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- EU Seventh Framework Programme (600623)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Demography › Technology Use by Older Adults
- Keywords
- socially assistive robots, elderly care, robot ethics, privacy, data protection, robot safety, responsibility, deception, vulnerable populations, autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, fairness, moral norms
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Austria, Confidentiality, Female, Humans, Informed Consent, Male, Man-Machine Systems, Robotics, Self-Help Devices, Social Support, User-Computer Interface, Vulnerable Populations
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