A Small Set of Ethical Challenges for Elder-Care Robots

Abstract

Elder-care robots have been suggested as a solution for the rising elder-care needs. Although many elder-care agents are commercially available, there are concerns about the behaviour of these robots in ethically charged situations. However, we do not find any evidence of ethical reasoning in commercial offerings. Assuming that this is due to the lack of agreed-upon standards, we offer a set of ethical ‘whetstones’ for them to hone their abilities. We believe that this will help to build better ethically sensitive elder-care robots, and also to understand the robot’s behaviour before making them a part of an elder-care organisation.