Euthanasia, artifial intelligence and robotics

Abstract

Law 3/2021 of March 24 (LORE) that regulates euthanasia has given rise to a controversy that is difficult to manage because it makes use of the monopolization of the medical profession for one purpose, euthanasia, which is not strictly sanitary, in the sense to care when the person can no longer be cured. This regulation of euthanasia is creating “discomfort” among medical professionals, who can see how AI and robotics can easily replace it. Indeed, the most complex moment for the “responsible doctor” will be to calibrate the conditions for admission or rejection of this Aid to Die (PAM) benefit, according to the imprecise conditions established by the law in the “euthanasia context”. I foresee that Artificial Intelligence can register, order, and stablish algorithms in which not only biometric constants are present, but also other patient data recorded in the medical record to grant, or not, this benefit with a more exact objectivity than the mere ideological perspective, or the exclusive sensitivity of the “responsible doctor” for initiating the administrative file of euthanasia.

Another part of the legal procedure of LORE that reject the medical profession is the execution of Aid to Die benefit (PAM). Thus, in places where assisted suicide is a more present reality than in our society, and where robotic technology is much more advanced, robots can soon be found that can carry out the entire process of applying euthanasia without any medical supervision. The present paper supposes an ethical approach to this reality, understanding the normative fit that it would suppose in our (Spanish) legal system and values the ethical conditions that would imply.