Should Doctor Robot possess moral empathy?

Critics of clinical artificial intelligence (AI) suggest that the technology is ethically harmful because it may lead to the dehumanization of the doctor–patient relationship (DPR) by eliminating moral empathy, which is viewed as a distinctively human trait. The benefits of clinical empathy—that is,...

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Publicado en:Bioethics Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 98 - 108
Autor principal: Sirgiovanni, Elisabetta
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Jan2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      pub: Wiley-Blackwell
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        atl: Should Doctor Robot possess moral empathy?
      aug:
        au: Sirgiovanni, Elisabetta
        affil: Section of History of Medicine and Bioethics, Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
      su:
        Empathy
        Criticism
        Psychiatry
        Respect
        Compassion
        Philosophy
        Ethics
        Physician-patient relations
        Physicians
        Health equity
        Affect (Psychology)
        Medical logic
        Patient autonomy
        Engineering
        Decision making in clinical medicine
        Robotics
      sug:
        subj:
          Empathy
          Criticism
          Psychiatry
          Respect
          Compassion
          Philosophy
          Ethics
          Physician-patient relations
          Physicians
          Health equity
          Affect (Psychology)
          Offices of physicians
          Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists)
          Medical logic
          Patient autonomy
          Engineering
          Decision making in clinical medicine
          Robotics
      keyword:
        artificial intelligence
        clinical
        Doctor Robot
        doctor–patient relationship
        empathy
        moral
        artificial intelligence
        clinical
        Doctor Robot
        doctor–patient relationship
        empathy
        moral
      ab: Critics of clinical artificial intelligence (AI) suggest that the technology is ethically harmful because it may lead to the dehumanization of the doctor–patient relationship (DPR) by eliminating moral empathy, which is viewed as a distinctively human trait. The benefits of clinical empathy—that is, moral empathy applied in the clinical context—are widely praised, but this praise is often unquestioning and lacks context. In this article, I will argue that criticisms of clinical AI based on appeals to empathy are misplaced. As psychological and philosophical research has shown, empathy leads to certain types of biased reasoning and choices. These biases of empathy consistently impact the DPR. Empathy may lead to partial judgments and asymmetric DPRs, as well as disparities in the treatment of patients, undermining respect for patient autonomy and equality. Engineers should consider the flaws of empathy when designing affective artificial systems in the future. The nature of sympathy and compassion (i.e., displaying emotional concern while maintaining some balanced distance) has been defended by some ethicists as more beneficial than perspective‐taking in the clinical context. However, these claims do not seem to have impacted the AI debate. Thus, this article will also argue that if machines are programmed for affective behavior, they should also be given some ethical scaffolding.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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