Bioethical challenges of artificial intelligence in surgery
Abstract
Bioethical challenges (benefits and risks) of the
systemic transformation of medical, including surgical, activities due to the
wide penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) systems into medical practice
are discussed. The significance of bioethical technologies for the
transformation of biomedical discoveries and inventions into socially
acceptable and marketable innovations is noted. Three modes of incorporation of
medical AI systems into the structures of physician-patient relationships
are distinguished. In the first mode, AI acts as a tool to improve activities
of the surgeon's hands and senses. In the second mode, AI plays а role of an assistant or consultant to the operating surgeon. The third, still hypothetical,
mode is characterized by the transformation of a surgical robot into an
operating surgeon (an autonomous healing subject). Bioethical challenges
(benefits and risks) associated with each of the regimes are discussed. The
principle of autonomy in two forms, decisional autonomy and executive
autonomy, emerged as the central category of bioethical analysis. It is
concluded that an interdisciplinary discussion of the challenges of AI in
medicine, involving the social sciences and society, is necessary, with
bioethics playing the role of moderator.
Keywords:artificial intelligence, autonomy, decisional autonomy, executive autonomy, bioethics, bioethical challenges, doctor-patient relationship, innovations, machine ethics, surgical robots
Funding. The article was prepared with the support of the Russian Foundation for
Basic Research, project No. 19-011-00064.
Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
For citation: Grebenshchikova E.G., Tishchenko P.D. Bioethical challenges of artificial
intelligence in surgery. Clinical and Experimental Surgery. Petrovsky Journal.
2021; 9 (3): 7-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33029/2308-1198-2021-9-3-7-15 (in Russian)