An overview of machine medical ethics

Abstract

This chapter defines the field of medical ethics and gives a brief overview of the history of medical ethics, its main principles and key figures. It discusses the exponential growth of medical ethics along with its differentiation into various subfields since 1960. The major problems and disputes of medical ethics are outlined, with emphasis on the relation between physicians and patients, institutions, and society, as well as on meta-ethical and pedagogic issues. Next, the specific problems of machine ethics as a part of the ethics of artificial intelligence are introduced. Machine ethics is described as a reflection about how machines should behave with respect to humans, unlike roboethics, which considers how humans should behave with respect to robots. A key question is to what extent medical robots might be able to become autonomous, and what degree of hazard their abilities might cause. If there is risk, what can be done to avoid it while still allowing robots in medical care?