Robots in Nursing Homes

On June 21, 2010, the Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled “It's Not a Stuffed Animal, It's a $6,000 Medical Device: Paro the Robo-Seal Aims to Comfort Elderly, but Is It Ethical?” by Anne Tergesen and Mihi Inada. The article is about a robot, called Paro, which resembles a baby harp seal and is meant to help elderly adults, especially those with dementia. According to the inventor Takanori Shibata, Paro can “recognize voices, track motion and ‘remember’ behaviors that elicit positive responses from patients.” Made and distributed in Japan, it was cleared by U.S. regulators as a medical device.

I thought the view of Dr. Thomas, who founded the Green House Project which encourages nursing homes to be more like regular homes, was interesting. He is supportive of technology that performs “mundane tasks” but wants to leave the “relationship piece” of care giving to the humans. I do not know if the divisions between “mundane” tasks and meaningful tasks are as clear cut as Dr. Thomas suggests. For example, making the bed might be a good excuse for a nurse to develop a relationship with the patient and perhaps lead to a meaningful interaction. Sometimes caregivers might be better at performing the “mundane” tasks than robots and caregivers can make the elders feel more at home. On the other hand, the elder may be more comfortable sharing his or her fears with an inanimate object instead of a person. Robots might be more soothing for the elders than a nurse could be. Either way, having other options of care is a positive step.

In fact, according to a Wall Street Journal article by Sharon LaFraniere entitled "China Might Force Visits to Mom and Dad," there is a huge concern in China over the state of their elders. With the increase of urbanization and the demographic shift in which elders greatly outnumber young adults, elders are in increasing danger of feeling neglected. Under this proposal, elders can sue their children for failing to visit them regularly. This illustrates the importance of social relationships for the elderly. Suicide rates have increased and depression is a huge problem. Robots and mandated family visits are ways to keep elders feeling connected.

Quite simply, care giving is hard. Using technology to ease the burden on caregivers, particularly those caring for multiple patients in nursing homes and those with cognitive or physical impairments, is praiseworthy. Some patients will not respond but others might. As long as patients are not being harmed, I think there is nothing ethically wrong with allowing those in need of a friend to become attached to a cute robot that can ultimately help them communicate better with humans and feel better about themselves.
These developments force us to question and more precisely define just want we think caretaking is and how we can go about living out our definition.

The Robot article:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704463504575301051844937276-lMyQjAxMTAxMDIwNjEyNDYyWj.html
The proposed amendment article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/world/asia/30beijing.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=china%20might%20force%20visits%20to%20mom%20and%20dad&st=cse