Sex robots....they're not just sleazy anymore.
A bioethics professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine says the sex robot could meet the sexual and emotional needs of the elderly.
New research says the sex bots could help a growing population of older, disabled adults. This is from a recent news release by UW Medicine:
The current U.S. marketplace for sex robots is geared to fulfilling the needs of young, white, able-bodied, heterosexual males – a population perhaps least in need of such assistance – and simultaneously overlooks a vast demographic of potential customers: senior citizens.
Professor Nancy Jecker has been looking a tthe social isolation faced by people over 65
“We apply ageist attitudes and negative stereotypes to older adults. We assume they’re too old to indulge in sex and think that older adults having interest in sex is weird or dirty,” Jecker said. “We have similar attitudes toward people with disabilities, where most research has focused on protecting them from able-bodied sexual predators instead of considering their sexual needs and desires as human beings.”
Jecker challenges robot designers to “think in terms of robots’ capability rather than their utility – not focusing only on the sexual pleasure that a robot gives to an older, disabled adult, but focusing on what the robot enables the person to do and be.”
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