Augmenting the Body: Disability, Bodily Extensions, Care, and the Posthuman, is an interdisciplinary Medical Humanities Project at the University of Leeds. As part of a series of workshops, Heather Draper and Tom Sorell (University of Warwick) will be presenting on Ethics, Robotics and Rehabilitation Technologies
Rehabilitation covers a wide range of activities and circumstances. This presentation will explore the ethical limitations of using robots to encourage the persistence and perseverance necessary to meet the goals of physical rehabilitation. How forcefully can a patient be persuaded to comply with routines necessary achieve the goals of rehabilitation? Answers to this question may depend on whether these goals have been set by the patient or someone else, and whether the professionals involved regard them as over or under ambitious. Robots and other technologies could be used to remove latent paternalism in rehabilitation. On the other hand, human-to-human activities may be more permissive when it comes to overcoming resistance to physical rehabilitation therapies than robot-to-human activities.
The event will take place at 2.15-4.15pm in Seminar Room 1, Leeds Humanities Research Institute, University of Leeds, 29-31 Clarendon Place, Leeds, LS2 9JT (number 25 on campus map).
For more information or to join the project mailing list, please email Sophie Jones. You can also follow the project on Twitter @augmentedbodies and keep up to date with our activities on the Leeds Centre for Medical Humanities website.