Robotic care for the elderly will solve the problem of the care for our ageing population

and cannot
come fast enough" Do you agree or disagree?

In a world with an increasing number of dependent individuals and an increasing shortage of caregivers,
the advent of robotics technology has been proposed as a solution where robots could provide care for
dependent individuals as a substitute for humans. While, this might appear as a milestone for human
ingenuity in that robots could perform tasks that were previously only done by humans, debate has
emerged over the morality of using robots as caregivers with some claiming that the use of robots is
unethically wrong. In my view, the employment of technology in performing some tasks that were
previously only done by humans is inevitable. As such, robots too could help in providing care for the
elderly provided that they act as supplements rather than primary caregivers or replacements.

The care for the elderly involves a variety of physical tasks, some of which could be performed by robots
without eroding ethical standards. Given that the world is facing a shortage of caregivers, this would
reduce the work load on caregivers where they could use the time saved to attend to others. However, it is
important to understand that there are needs that robots cannot effectively provide to dependent people.
As Parks (2010) indicates, even now, a significant proportion of dependent individuals already feel
isolated and overlooked due to the lack of genuine human relationships that are essential for their
psychological wellbeing. Furthermore, the use of robots as replacements for humans could reduce social
interaction and companionship that occurs as caregivers perform their duties. Additional, concerns
include the loss of freedom and liberty as programmed robots regulate the lives of the dependent,
potential feelings of objectification, infantilisation and deception.

Notwithstanding, the use of robots in the provision for the elderly can be an empowering tool for both
dependent individuals and caregivers. This can only be achieved prioritizing the ethical considerations for
the needy whereby robots would only be assigned duties that to not infringe on their rights to freedom,
companionship and dignity, while providing them with sufficient opportunities to form meaningful
relationships necessary for their psychological well-being. There is need for a balance where robots in
which robots contribute to the improving of care for the elderly while promoting their welfare. One way
of achieving this is by customizing robotic care based on individual needs and delegating robots only
those tasks that do not erode the benefits of human interaction.