ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how the Contractarian ethics engine would apply to autonomous robots that might typically live with elderly people and provide treatments for maintaining normal physical functioning. It explores how the ethics engine applies to robots in emergency rescue situations like natural disasters, evacuations, and distributions of scarce medical resources like flu vaccines. In 2000, the FDA approved the use of the da Vinci surgical system, which allows a surgeon to make smaller and more precise incisions and sutures with the aid of cameras and robotic arms that she controls manually. IBM's prototype robot, the Multi-Purpose Eldercare Robot Assistant, is currently being developed with sensors that can read vital signs and detect when a person has fallen. A robot that just happens to be nearby performs a quick calculation, and realizes that Smith's character has a greater chance of survival, so the robot dives into the water, saving him rather than the girl.
