Article Text
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Nancy Jecker’s essay Nothing to be Ashamed of: Sex Robots for Older Adults with Disabilities 1 presents a provocative application of the capabilities approach. Her ethical argument for providing access to sex robots for older adults with disabilities proceeds in five parts:
Older adults frequently suffer disabilities that impair sexual functioning.
The ability to function sexually is linked to central human capabilities, including: the ability to generate a personally meaningful life narrative; be physically, mentally and emotionally healthy; experience bodily integrity; feel and express a range of human emotions; affiliate deeply with others; and reflect on and choose a plan for their life.
Society should take reasonable steps to support these human capabilities at a minimal threshold as part of a broader duty to respect human dignity.
Providing access to sex robots comprises part of reasonable efforts to support the six capabilities at a minimal threshold.
Therefore, society ought to make reasonable efforts to ensure access to sex robots for older adults with disabilities that impair sexual functioning.
I am sympathetic to this line of reasoning, having proposed a series of legal reforms that would facilitate sexual expression among older adults with cognitive impairments as well.2 3 …
Footnotes
Twitter @abonisaenz
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
Linked Articles
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Nothing to be ashamed of: sex robots for older adults with disabilities
- Sex robot fantasies
- A human right to pleasure? Sexuality, autonomy and egalitarian strategies
- Commentary on Jecker
- Comment on ‘I, Sex Robot: the health implications of the sex robot industry’
- Robots and sexual ethics
- Sex robots for older adults with disabilities: reply to critics
- I, Sex Robot: the health implications of the sex robot industry
- Considering sex robots for older adults with cognitive impairments
- Sex robots: the irreplaceable value of humanity