Conference Theme

Aging between Simulation and Participation – Ethical Dimensions of SociallyAssistive Technologies (DigitAs)

BMBF Young Scholars’ Conference 4.2. – 8.2. 2019

Changing Societies

The demographic change poses great challenges for european healthcare systems. In future, an increasing number of elder people will be reliant on the healthcare system. Due to limitations occurring with old age or increasing morbidity more people will be restricted in regard to their motoric, sensoric or cognitive abilities and will need support to participate in society processes, to follow personal goals, or in everyday activities. At the same time, family structures and societal models change and lead to a decreasing number of younger people working in care or provide resources for healthcare tasks. In future, european healthcare systems face a resource crisis in which it will be very difficult to fulfill all claims. Especially the rights of those who rely on support to exercise their personal autonomy will be at stake.

The Promise

In the looming resource crisis, social digital assisstive technologies (DATs) to bridge the gap in healthcare and to preserve individual rights by assisting their users discretely. DATs are information-processing machines designed for therapeutic, rehabilitative or caring purposes that integrate into the users’ everyday surrounding to accompany and support them. Examples may be watch-like GPS-trackers to be able to locate disoriented persons with dementia, monitoring devices for surveillance of vital parameters or companion technologies like the famous Paro, the baby seal, who encourages its users to engage in social-like interactions.

Ethical Challenges

From an ethical perspective DATs can maintain and further autonomy, privacy, personal relationships and wellbeing despite increasing limitations. However, DATs raise difficult ethical questions. The line between a desirable support of autonomy, wellbeing or benevolent care on the one side and its simulation as well as the users’ deception is blurred. The Use of DATs inherit the risk of just simulating the satisfaction of important moral needs and at the same time seem to have the tendency to obscure their false pretenses. Especially in supporting the elderly or the impaired the use of DATs runs a risk of deceiving the users. Isn’t it the case that Paro or other devices encourage their users to engage in a relationship that is just simulated by an algorithm on one side while it releases others from the duty to engage in a real relationship?  Assistive devices often create illusions and simulations. They can trick their users into social-like empathic relationships or manipulate their surroundings and beliefs. Isn’t that morally questionable? Should we use such technologies in elderly care? And if we do: How should we use it?

The Conference

The interdisciplinary conference “Aging between Simulation and Participation” addresses early stage researchers (PhD students and postdoctoral researchers) from different disciplines (medical ethics, medicine, law, philosophy, psychology, nursing science, political and social sciences, public health, history). Researchers from different countries (especially Germany, Switzerland and other European countries) are invited to present their research projects, to discuss them with leading experts and to contribute to the interdisciplinary discourse.

The interdisciplinary conference aims to shed some light on the difficult question when and unter what circumstances the use of assisstive technologies may be morally justified. Applicants are asked to submit an abstract in English on the topics mentioned above (250-500 words) along with a short CV via e-mail to digitas@rub.de to arrive by 15 November 2018.

Accepted participants will be asked to give an oral presentation of 25 minutes, followed by a discussion of 30 minutes. In addition, all participants are invited to prepare a manuscript and to submit it for peer review and publication in a conference volume. The conference language is English. Travel expenses as well as the stay and the meals in Bochum will be reimbursed. In addition, we are able to provide an honorarium of € 300 for the submission of the written contribution.

The Conference will be held 4th -8th of February 2019 and is hosted by the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum. It is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.


Universitätsstraße 150 | 44801 Bochum
Tel.: +49 234 32201
Impressum | Datenschutz | Kontakt RUB

Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Markstraße 258a | 44799 Bochum
Tel.: +49 234 3223394
rub.de/malakow


Letzte Änderung: 01.01.1970 | Ansprechpartner/in: Inhalt & Technik