Healthcare robots enable practices that seemed far-fetched in the past. Robots might be the solution to bridge the loneliness that the elderly often experience; they may help wheelchair users walk again, or may help navigate the blind. European Institutions, however, acknowledge that human contact is an essential aspect of personal care and that the insertion of robots could dehumanize caring practices. Such instances of human–robot interactions raise the question to what extent the use and development of robots for healthcare applications can challenge the dignity of users. In this article, therefore, we explore how different robot applications in the healthcare domain support individuals in achieving ‘dignity’ or pressure it. We argue that since healthcare robot applications are novel, their associated risks and impacts may be unprecedented and unknown, thus triggering the need for a conceptual instrument that is binding and remains flexible at the same time. In this respect, as safety rules and data protection are often criticized to lack flexibility, and technology ethics to lack enforceability, we suggest human dignity as the overarching governance instrument for robotics, which is the inviolable value upon which all fundamental rights are grounded.

中文翻译：

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“哦，尊严也是？” 机器人说：人类尊严是机器人治理的基础

医疗机器人实现了过去看似遥不可及的实践。机器人可能是消除老年人经常经历的孤独感的解决方案；他们可以帮助轮椅使用者再次行走，或者可以帮助盲人导航。然而，欧洲机构承认人类接触是个人护理的一个重要方面，机器人的插入可能会使护理实践失去人性。这种人机交互的例子提出了一个问题，机器人在医疗保健应用中的使用和开发在多大程度上可以挑战用户的尊严。因此，在本文中，我们探讨了医疗保健领域中不同的机器人应用程序如何支持个人实现“尊严”或对其施加压力。我们认为，由于医疗机器人应用是新颖的，它们相关的风险和影响可能是前所未有的和未知的，因此需要一种具有约束力并同时保持灵活性的概念性文书。在这方面，由于安全规则和数据保护经常被批评缺乏灵活性，技术伦理缺乏可执行性，我们建议将人类尊严作为机器人技术的首要治理工具，这是所有基本权利所依据的不可侵犯的价值。