Robots humanize care: Moral concerns versus witnessed benefits for the elderly

Margo A.M. Van Kemenade; Elly A. Konijn; Johannes Ferdinand Hoorn

Robots humanize care: Moral concerns versus witnessed benefits for the elderly

Margo A.M. Van Kemenade, Elly A. Konijn, Johannes Ferdinand Hoorn

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceeding › Conference article published in proceeding or book › Academic research › peer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ageing in Europe comes more rapidly than many realize: In about 10 years, one fifth of the population will be 65+ with a further increase of 70% in the next 25 years. At the same time, healthcare is under extreme pressure due to budget cuts, limited resources and personnel together with increased demands. Robots may fulfill important tasks in this respect. Our research focuses on social robots to support tasks requiring interpersonal communication. Many moral concerns and objections are raised, however, in particular among care professionals. To examine the issue, we report on 1) a qualitative study among professional caregivers and 2) a documentary portraying healthy elderly meeting with Hanson's Robokind "Alice". Alice is under development in our lab, supplying her with abilities for emotional responses. The results show that the moral concerns are not in line with the benefits that the social robots appear to have for the lonely elderly. Our conclusion posits that new robot technology may not dehumanize care but rather may bring humanness back into professional health care.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	HEALTHINF 2015 - 8th International Conference on Health Informatics, Proceedings; Part of 8th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2015
Publisher	SciTePress
Pages	648-653
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9789897580680
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2015
Externally published	Yes
Event	8th International Conference on Health Informatics, HEALTHINF 2015 - Lisbon, Portugal Duration: 12 Jan 2015 → 15 Jan 2015

Conference

Conference	8th International Conference on Health Informatics, HEALTHINF 2015
Country/Territory	Portugal
City	Lisbon
Period	12/01/15 → 15/01/15

Keywords

Affective bonding
Ageing
Healthcare robots
Moral concerns
Professional caregivers

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Health Information Management
Computer Science Applications
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Health Informatics
Signal Processing

Cite this

Van Kemenade, Margo A.M. ; Konijn, Elly A. ; Hoorn, Johannes Ferdinand. / Robots humanize care: Moral concerns versus witnessed benefits for the elderly. HEALTHINF 2015 - 8th International Conference on Health Informatics, Proceedings; Part of 8th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2015. SciTePress, 2015. pp. 648-653

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Van Kemenade, MAM, Konijn, EA & Hoorn, JF 2015, Robots humanize care: Moral concerns versus witnessed benefits for the elderly. in HEALTHINF 2015 - 8th International Conference on Health Informatics, Proceedings; Part of 8th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2015. SciTePress, pp. 648-653, 8th International Conference on Health Informatics, HEALTHINF 2015, Lisbon, Portugal, 12/01/15.

Robots humanize care: Moral concerns versus witnessed benefits for the elderly. / Van Kemenade, Margo A.M.; Konijn, Elly A.; Hoorn, Johannes Ferdinand.
HEALTHINF 2015 - 8th International Conference on Health Informatics, Proceedings; Part of 8th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2015. SciTePress, 2015. p. 648-653.

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceeding › Conference article published in proceeding or book › Academic research › peer-review

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AU - Hoorn, Johannes Ferdinand

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Robots humanize care: Moral concerns versus witnessed benefits for the elderly

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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