Professional and Ethical Issues Surrounding Robotic Surgery Systems

This discussion post explores the ethical and professional issues associated with robotic surgery, focusing on the responsibilities of IT professionals in developing and ensuring the accuracy of surgical robots. The post examines the potential for harm to patients due to errors in these systems and discusses the implications through various ethical theories, including utilitarianism, deontology, social contract theory, and virtue ethics. It highlights the ethical dilemma of balancing the benefits of robotic surgery with the potential risks. Additionally, the post references the Australian Computer Society (ACS) code of ethics, analyzing its relevance to the scenario and emphasizing the importance of honesty, competence, and prioritizing public interest in the development and implementation of these technologies. The post concludes by underscoring the critical role of ethics in this field, where the accuracy and reliability of robotic systems directly impact patient safety and well-being.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS
PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Discussions
Post A
The scenario describes about the robotic surgery. Robotic surgery is prevalent in
various countries in the world. Robotic surgery or surgery those are assisted by robots
permits doctors to execute various types of complicated processes with accuracy, flexibility
and controls those are possible with methods those are conventional. However, there can be
professional and ethical issues can be related to the surgery. The robots that the developers
create can have issues, it can end up in dangerous outcomes, and it can even take the life of
the patient (Morris, Wong & Tuttle, 2016). This post discusses about the ethical dilemma that
is related to the accuracy of robots created by the IT professionals. This ethical dilemma will
be backed by various ethical theories.
Utilitarianism is a theory of ethics that places the focus of right or wrong on the
consequences of selection of one action over the other. It moves beyond the scope of interest
of an individual and takes the interest of others into account (Piacquadio, 2017). The
principles of utilitarianism is that happiness is one thing that has a value that is intrinsic,
actions are right so far it promotes pleasure and the cheerfulness of every counts evenly. By
applying this theory to the scenario of robotic surgery, it can be said that the robotic surgery
are solving the problems of many patients but at the same time, it can harm the life of
patients. This theory depends on the consequences of the actions those are performed. The
robotic surgery can perform surgery properly but at the same time, it can harm the life of
patients. Here, the professionals of IT are responsible for precision of robots. The IT
professionals develop the robots and if they make any mistake during the development, the
accuracy is damaged and the when the robot is used for surgery they can harm the lives of
patients. Therefore, it is an ethical issue. Utilitarianism states that it depends on the

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consequences of an action (Bulboacă, Bolboacă & Bulboacă, 2017). Therefore, in this case
the consequences are harmful. Therefore, the robotic surgeries must be stopped.
The ethics of deontology is a theory of ethics that states the goodness of an activity
should always be based on if the activity that is taken is correct or incorrect a sequence of
rules rather than the result of the action. Applying the theory of deontology to the scenario of
robotic surgery, it can be said that the doctors use robotic surgeries but sometimes it becomes
harmful for the patients (Mandal, Ponnambath & Parija, 2016). The professionals of IT are
accountable for precision of robots. The IT professionals develop these robots with the help
of complicated codes and if they make any issue either intentionally or unintentionally, the
accuracy of the robots is damaged. If it is intentionally done, then it becomes an ethical issues
and the theory of deontology is based on the actions rather than on the consequences of
actions. When these inaccurate robots are used for the purpose of operation, they can harm
the lives of patients and it can even take their life. This is the breach of ethics and the doctors
must start practicing without theses robots (Siqueira-Batista et al.,2016). It professionals
some have some ethics when they are developing such robots for surgeries.
The theory of social contract refers that people stay mutually in the culture according
to some agreement that develops some rules of behaviour those are political and moral.
Several people consider if they exist according to the social contract, they can live ethically
by their own choice. The social contract theory by John Locke states that liberty, property
and life are provided to us by natural world and it should not be taken away. By applying this
theory to the scenario of robotics surgery is can be said that robotics surgery can take the life
of a human being and life is provided to us by natural world and they should not be taken
away. The IT professional develop these surgical robotics and they are accountable for the
precision of these robots (Moehler, 2018). They develop complex codes in order to develop
these codes and sometimes these codes can go wrong and the robots will not be accurate

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anymore. It is the responsibility of the IT professional to make these robots, as they will be
used for the purposes or surgery. When these inaccurate robots are used for surgeries, it can
go wrong like that happened to the man who suffered from infection and cardiac arrest due to
bad surgeries. It could have taken the life of the person. Therefore, it is against ethics and in
the theory of social contract, it is said that life is provided to the people by natural world and
it should not be taken away by anyone (Nestor & Wilson, 2019). Therefore, the IT
professional do not have any rights to take the life of a person by inaccurate surgical robots.
Virtue ethics or ethics that is based on character is usually based on person and not
based on performance. It looks at the ethical character of the person that performs an action
rather than at the rules and duties, those are ethical, or the results on specific actions. By
applying, the theories of character-based ethics it can be said that the IT professional must
have proper ethics when they are developing the robots those are used for surgeries (Tavani,
2016). The professionals of IT are solely accountable for precision of robots those are used
for the surgeries. The IT professionals can make mistakes or errors while they are developing
the robots for surgeries. They should have some ethics when they are developing the robots
as the robots will be used for operations and surgeries and inaccurate or any problem in the
robots can damage organs and even take the life of a person. Here, the character-based ethics
come into play. It professional have proper morals and have moral character (Sotelo, Arriaga
& Aron, 2018). When they intentionally develop inaccurate robots, the ethics and the theory
is breached. However, it should be advised to the doctors not to use these robots.
Post B
The full form of Code of ethics of ACS is Australian computer society code of ethics.
This code of ethics is devised by the Australian Computer society. The code of ethics consists
of the following rules:

4PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS
 The primary of interest of public
 The upgrade in the quality of life
 Honesty
 Competence
 Development in profession
 Professionalism
By applying the code of ethics in this scenario, the ethical dilemma of the IT professional
can be easily judged and it can be discussed properly with the help of the Code of ethics of
ACS.
The IT professional that develop the robots must place the interest of public at the top
of their priority and they should not develop a robot that can harm the life of people. They
should keep the public interest first rather than personal of business interest. If they do that,
the code of ethics will be breached (Kuespert, 2017). They should have some ethics when
they are developing the robots. The IT professionals must upgrade the quality of life of those
people those are influenced by their work. The IT professionals must upgrade the quality of
life of the people with the help of accurate robots as the robots that they develop affect the
surgeries. Therefore, they should not develop robots those are inaccurate as it can harm the
people undergoing surgery and this goes against the Code of ethics of ACS.
The IT professional must be honest when they are developing the robots for their
surgeries. Their job is to make the robots as accurate as possible for the successfulness of the
surgeries (Warren & Burmeister, 2017). However, sometimes for their business interest they
can make the robot inaccurate intentionally. It means they are dishonest towards their work
and skills. This goes against the Code of ethics of ACS. The IT professionals must be honest
with their work. The IT professionals must work diligently for their stakeholders. Here the

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stakeholders are the people buying the patients too. Therefore, they should work
appropriately so that there are no issues in the surgical robots and they work properly during
the surgeries. If they do not do that, the stakeholders will not be satisfied and the life of the
patient will be in danger due to bad surgeries by these robots.
The IT professionals must work in order to develop their skills so that they make the
perfect robots that can perform the operations successfully. They should enhance the
professional development of their colleagues (Miller, 2017). The IT professionals should not
be dishonest with their profession as life of many people is dependent on their profession and
they should work to develop their skills. From here, it can be said that the IT professionals
must follow the code of ethics. Ethics is very important in this field as life of many people is
dependent on them and the robots that they develop. They are responsible for the accuracy of
the robots and they should not breach ethics for their personal gain or breach the code of
ethics (Mabrouk & Schelble, 2018).

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References
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