Robotic Sex Dolls With Companionship Functions
Nancy Jaeckel, a bioethicist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, suggests developing a new type of companion robot to provide social and companionship functions. Jackel published a study titled "Confronting Life with Disabilities and Older Adults without the Shame of Companion Robots. The study focuses on elderly people who lack companionship or who have physical disabilities that make daily life inconvenient, especially during the New Guinea epidemic closure, when people have experienced isolation and confinement, and when people are living longer on average and may lead more isolated, self-absorbed lives in the future, he believes that providing them with a companion robot could improve their physical and mental health.
Writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Jackel said, "I conclude that companion robots are a reasonable way to support the inner lives of older, disabled people by replacing human modes of interaction and providing the missing social activity." While companion robots are often described as products for able-bodied young people, this paper attempts to redefine companion robots as products for older adults and people with disabilities. She argues that: companionship for lonely older adults is about personal dignity. Companion robots are proposed not only for the purpose for which they were originally designed, but also for domestic service and even conversation.
Jackel writes, "Designing and marketing companion robots for the elderly and disabled would represent a dramatic change in current practice. The reason for doing so is to preserve human dignity and to take seriously the claims of those whose social skills are diminished by disability or loneliness." She also believes that companion robots can serve isolated people in a way that humans cannot because they are always present and "listen" without judgment. Jackel told the Seattle Times, "The ability to have a social life at any age has to do with your ability to have a life. It's not just about surviving, it's about having a life and doing something worthwhile. Relationships, physical integrity, these are all about dignity."
The Aging Population Is Getting Worse
Population aging is a phenomenon in which a country's population distribution is skewed toward higher ages. This is usually reflected in the average and median age of the population, with the proportion of children in the population declining and the proportion of older people rising. Population aging is worldwide, occurring more in developed countries, but has recently begun to surface in developing countries as well. This trend is accelerating in developing regions, meaning that older people will be concentrated in developing regions. The Oxford Institute for Population Ageing, on the other hand, believes that population aging, which has slowed down in Europe, will have a huge impact in Asia in the future, especially in those Asian countries that are in demographic transition mode 5.
In developed countries currently recognized by the United Nations (whose total population was 1.2 billion in 2005), the overall median age rose from 28 years in 1950 to 40 years in 2010 and is expected to be 44 years by 2050. The corresponding values for the world are 24 years in 1950, 29 years in 2010 and 36 years in 2050. For developing regions, the median age is expected to rise from 26 years in 2010 to 35 years in 2050.
Two demographic factors may be contributing to population aging: longer life span and declining fertility. Longer life spans of the elderly lead to a higher average age of the population. Fewer children lead to a lower number of young people. Of these two factors, declining fertility is the main causal factor of global population aging today. More specifically, the significant decline in overall fertility over the past half century is the main cause of population aging in the world's most developed countries. Because many developing countries are undergoing an even more rapid fertility transition, they will experience more severe population aging in the future than the developed countries do today.
The rate of population aging is likely to increase over the next three decades; however, the nation does not know whether older people will live healthy lives in their old age. The "disease compression theory" suggests that the elderly will not be more disabled, but will be less healthy the longer they live. Another view is the "dynamic equilibrium". Information about whether a finite life will continue indefinitely, as some researchers believe, is critical to governments. The World Health Organization's series of family health studies are seeking evidence for the health and well-being needed, including such studies as the World Health Survey and the Global Study on Aging and Adult Health. These surveys interviewed 308,000 people over the age of 18 and 81,000 people over the age of 50 in 70 countries.
The Global Survey on Aging, conducted by George Leeson, examined attitudes, expectations and behaviors in later life and retirement, interviewing 44,000 people between the ages of 40 and 80 in 24 countries and found that many were well aware of the aging of the world's population and the implications for themselves and their children. Canada has the highest world immigration rate, used in part to stifle population aging. The C. D. Howe Institute, a conservative think tank, does not believe that immigration is an effective way to stifle population aging. Other scholars have reached similar conclusions. According to demographers Peter McDonald and Rebecca Kippen, "Fertility rates then fall below replacement level, and even zero population growth requires an increase in annual net immigration levels to sustain it.
In this context of global aging, not only does the physical health of older people deserve outside attention, but the mental health of older people is also something that younger people need to pay special attention to.
