Currently a large number of people living in long-term care facilities suffer from cognitive disorders such as dementia. In this context, new robotic technologies, including social robotics in animals form, can be helpful tools for care and support. However, there are ethical issues that need to be addressed in order to ensure that the use of such robots with vulnerable residents is beneficial. Using the principles of medical ethics, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice, we propose a number of ethical assessment criteria for the use of animal-based social robotics with residents of long-term care facilities.
Perruchoud et al. (Thu,) studied this question.