Ethics in robotic surgery and telemedicine

Abstract

Robotic surgery and telemedicine become wide spread in medical world and these techniques are used more and more in a large number of surgical interventions. The limits of all these modern technologies are pushed by surgeons, required by patients and stimulated by industry. There is a concern regarding the accelerating evolution of technology which may lead to some fantastic scenarios such as autonomous surgeon, criminal interference during a telesurgical intervention and other aspects. In this article the ethical issues of the robotic surgery and telemedicine are debated in order to initiate the development of a set of ethical rules in this field. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010.