This study examined children's moral concern for robots relative to living and nonliving entities. Children (4-10 years of age, N = 126) watched videos of six different entities having a box placed over them that was subsequently struck by a human hand. Children were subsequently asked to rate the moral worth of each agent relating to physical harm. Children afforded robotic entities less moral concern than living entities but afforded them more moral concern than nonliving entities, and these effects became more pronounced with age. Children's tendency to ascribe mental life to robotic and nonliving entities (but not living entities) predicted moral concern for these entities. However, when asked to make moral judgments relating to giving the agent away, children did not distinguish between nonliving and robotic agents and no age-related changes were identified. Moreover, the tendency to ascribe mental life was predictive of moral concern only for some agents but not others. Overall, the findings suggest that children consider robotic entities to occupy a middle moral ground between living and nonliving entities and that this effect is partly explained by the tendency to ascribe mental life to such agents. They also demonstrate that moral worth is a complex multifaceted concept that does not demonstrate a clear pattern across different ontological categories.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.06.009 | DOI Listing |
J Surg Educ
January 2025
Department of Sociology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Objective: Discussions related to the importance of seeking specific consent for sensitive (e.g., pelvic, rectal) exams performed on anesthetized patients by medical students have been growing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealthcare (Basel)
December 2024
Department of Organization and Economy of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University-Sofia, 1504 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Background/objectives: This article emphasizes the comprehensive importance of vaccination, exploring its role in disease prevention, addressing growing concerns around vaccine hesitancy, and underscoring the crucial need for high vaccination coverage rates.
Methods: Our review examines EU-level and national policies on vaccination, utilizing EU sources, with a specific focus on regulatory and policy documents. Vaccination calendars in the EU were reviewed through the ECDC Vaccine Scheduler webpage.
Neuroethics
July 2024
Department of Philosophy, Savery Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA.
Neurotechnological cognitive enhancement has become an area of intense scientific, policy, and ethical interest. However, while work has increasingly focused on ethical views of the general public, less studied are those with personal connections to cognitive impairment. Using a mixed-methods design, we surveyed attitudes regarding implantable neurotechnological cognitive enhancement in individuals who self-identified as having increased likelihood of developing dementia (n=25; 'Our Study'), compared to a nationally representative sample of Americans (n=4726; 'Pew Study').
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTasers, a form of police weaponry causing neuromuscular incapacitation and extreme pain, were confirmed in 2010 to be used in New Zealand inpatient mental health units. Their use on patients, or tāngata whai ora (persons seeking wellbeing), raises ethical concerns about harm prevention, moral duties, and human rights in healthcare. The New Zealand healthcare system, grounded in principles and rights, regulates procedures to uphold fundamental rights.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Speech Lang Pathol
January 2025
Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Purpose: A systematic review was conducted to describe various viewpoints expressed in speech-language pathology literature over four decades concerning ethics knowledge in the profession.
Method: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were employed. Our sample search encompassed peer-reviewed journal articles sourced from electronic databases including MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC, MasterFILE Premier, E-Journals, Africa-Wide Information, and Academic Search Premier, spanning the period from 1980 to 2022.
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