Aged Care with Socially Assistive Robotics under Advance Care Planning

Abstract

Socially assistive robotics (SAR) is expected to improve care for aged people. However, SAR-assisted care raises ethical issues such as safety, dependence, privacy, dehumanization, etc. Although guidelines have been prepared for addressing these issues in the development process, some are beyond the responsibility of engineers. This paper argues for a role of healthcare professionals in ethically sound SAR-assisted care, connecting the concept of advance care planning (ACP) with the ethics of SAR. This process allows the care to reflect the preferences and values of care recipients, but there are several barriers to ACP in SAR-assisted care. This paper suggests measures for improving conduct of the ACP process: education, and community care. Decision-making that appropriately reflects the preferences of the care recipient enables SAR-assisted care to be ethically acceptable.