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RADIUS Ethical discourses on aging in the field of robotics and digital technology

HeiAge - sub project

Principal Investigators: Dr. phil. Sonja Ehret, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Andreas Kruse
Funding: Carl-Zeiss Stiftung
Duration: Mai 2020 – April 2023
Official project website: https://orb.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/heiage/

Project Description

In order to weigh up the use of digital technology and assistance systems in the lives of older people and make them usable, it is necessary to consider ethical and political aspects directly from the start of technical development.

Based on four possible ethical dilemmas (1) the potential curtailment of autonomy, which can be associated with an increase in the experience of security, (2) the increase in the quality of therapy, rehabilitation and care while at the same time there is a risk that their standards will be called into question (3) the socially justified use of new assistance products and (4) the possibility of relieving carers, which can be associated with the risk of disrupting care processes, further dilemmas should be discovered and analysed in practical contexts. The outcomes should be translated into a general ethics of values.

The sample includes (a) 70 older people in nursing and rehabilitative contexts (b) 70 nursing professionals, physiotherapists and mediciners and (c) 70 representatives of health insurance companies, medicine and nursing associations as well as political decision-makers. The basic method is the dialogue (on this Ehret 2020), which should take place at the micro, meso and macro level in stages.

The central question arises to what extent autonomy in the sense of the ethical categories of independence, self responsibility and shared responsibility (Kruse 2005) can be promoted through robot technology, what ethical dilemmas are linked to it and how these should be dealt with. The oldest age is thereby considered in a special way.

In the field of care and rehabilitation, digital technology is to be examined with regard to the reduction in physical stress and possible gains in quality of care. But what ethical dilemmas arise in the perception and interpretation of good care?

Finally, we ask ourselves political questions of social justice in the dissemination of technical products including their distributive justice, which also implies freedom of choice. The critical examination of all these questions and answers and the opportunities and risks contained therein should be reflected in recommendations and standards for the development and (voluntary) use of digital technologies.

Ethical discourses of the first phase of the project

Second phase of the project

In the second part of the study, we address questions of a good life, which lead us back to the basic question of ethics. We examine the connections between a) technologies, b) the everyday life of older people, operationalized by their themes of being, and c) the idea of a good life. Using various methods, the door should be opened to the return of the question of the good life and about the answers should be reflected upon. In doing so, implicit (silent) knowledge of the study participants could be activated.

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Latest Revision: 2022-03-08
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