Papers
13
Total Citations
655
H-Index
9
About
Heather Draper is a leading bioethicist whose scholarship sits at the intersection of technology, aging, and care ethics. She has made pioneering contributions to the ethical frameworks governing the design and deployment of social and assistive robots for older people, a field of growing urgency as populations age globally and demand for care outpaces available human resources. Draper's most influential work, "Robot carers, ethics, and older people" (2014, 166 citations), established a foundational ethical framework prioritizing autonomy, safety, and dignity in robotic home companionship. This was complemented by her international qualitative research identifying core values — including independence, privacy, and social connectedness — that should guide both robot design and introduction into older people's homes. Her engagement with real-world perspectives, drawing on focus groups across the UK, France, and the Netherlands, gave her frameworks unusual empirical grounding. A key contributor to the pan-European ACCOMPANY project, Draper helped shape multidisciplinary approaches to human-robot interaction spanning engineering, philosophy, and social science. Her more recent contribution to the IDEAL framework for surgical robotics (2024, 143 citations) demonstrates the breadth of her influence across care technology evaluation. With over 630 cumulative citations, Draper's work remains essential reading for anyone navigating the ethical landscape of assistive technology.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Robot carers, ethics, and older people166 citations · 2014
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- 9Second thoughts about privacy, safety and deception15 citations · 2017
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