Robot sex and consent: Is consent to sex between a robot and a human conceivable, possible, and desirable?

The development of highly humanoid sex robots is on the technological horizon. If sex robots are integrated into the legal community as “electronic persons”, the issue of sexual consent arises, which is essential for legally and morally permissible sexual relations between human persons. This paper explores whether it is conceivable, possible, and desirable that humanoid robots should be designed such that they are capable of consenting to sex. We consider reasons for giving both “no” and “yes” answers to these three questions by examining the concept of consent in general, as well as critiques of its adequacy in the domain of sexual ethics; the relationship between consent and free will; and the relationship between consent and consciousness. Additionally we canvass the most influential existing literature on the ethics of sex with robots.

[1]  P. Appelbaum Clinical practice. Assessment of patients' competence to consent to treatment. , 2007, The New England journal of medicine.

[2]  Michael Smith,et al.  Rational Capacities, or:How to Distinguish Recklessness, Weakness, and Compulsion , 2003 .

[3]  David J. Gunkel A Vindication of the Rights of Machines , 2014, Machine Ethics and Robot Ethics.

[4]  R. Rhodes,et al.  The Not Unreasonable Standard for Assessment of Surrogates and Surrogate Decisions , 2004, Theoretical medicine and bioethics.

[5]  Luciano Floridi,et al.  On the Morality of Artificial Agents , 2004, Minds and Machines.

[6]  Harry G. Frankfurt Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility , 1969 .

[7]  K. Darling Extending Legal Protection to Social Robots: The Effects of Anthropomorphism, Empathy, and Violent Behavior Towards Robotic Objects , 2012 .

[8]  Lily Frank,et al.  From sex robots to love robots: is mutual love with a robot possible? , 2017 .

[9]  Kevin Warwick,et al.  The Merging of Humans and Machines , 2015 .

[10]  Daniel C. Dennett,et al.  The practical requirements for making a conscious robot , 1994, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[11]  Joanna J. Bryson,et al.  Introduction to the Special Issue on Machine Morality: The Machine as Moral Agent and Patient , 2014 .

[12]  John Martin Fischer,et al.  Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility , 1998 .

[13]  Adrian David Cheok,et al.  Love and Sex with Robots , 2017, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[14]  John Danaher,et al.  Robotic Rape and Robotic Child Sexual Abuse: Should They be Criminalised? , 2017 .

[15]  V. I. Cheadle,et al.  AN EVALUATION OF STUDIES ON ULTRASTRUCTURE OF TONOPLAST IN SIEVE ELEMENTS. , 1962, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[16]  J. Danaher,et al.  Robot Sex. Social and Ethical Implications , 2020, Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung.

[17]  Catharine A. MacKinnon,et al.  Women's Lives, Men's Laws , 2005 .

[18]  Eddy Nahmias,et al.  Free Will as a Psychological Accomplishment , 2016 .

[19]  Gerald Dworkin,et al.  The theory and practice of autonomy , 1992 .

[20]  Thomas Grisso,et al.  Assessing Competence to Consent to Treatment: A Guide for Physicians and Other Health Professionals , 1998 .

[21]  Sherry Turkle,et al.  The second self: computers and the human spirit , 1984 .

[22]  David J. Gunkel The Machine Question: Critical Perspectives on AI, Robots, and Ethics , 2012 .

[23]  Benjamin Vilhauer The People Problem , 2013 .

[24]  Kathleen Richardson,et al.  The asymmetrical 'relationship' , 2016, SIGCAS Comput. Soc..

[25]  Don C. Locke Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting , 1986 .

[26]  P. Pettit Responsibility Incorporated* , 2007, Ethics.

[27]  J. Bryson Robots should be slaves , 2010 .

[28]  Michael Pauen,et al.  Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility , 2013 .

[29]  David M. Ciocchi The Significance of Free Will , 1999 .

[30]  Sinziana M. Gutiu The roboticization of consent , 2016 .

[31]  John Martin Fischer,et al.  Responsibility and control , 1998 .

[32]  C. Adams,et al.  Transforming a Rape Culture , 1993 .

[33]  Joanna J. Bryson,et al.  A ROLE FOR CONSCIOUSNESS IN ACTION SELECTION , 2011 .

[34]  Mark Coeckelbergh,et al.  Robot rights? Towards a social-relational justification of moral consideration , 2010, Ethics and Information Technology.

[35]  Robin L. West,et al.  Sex, Law and Consent , 2008 .

[36]  I. Kant THE LECTURES ON ETHICS , 2019, The Development of Kant's View of Ethics.

[37]  P. Strawson Freedom and Resentment , 1962 .

[38]  John Danaher,et al.  The Symbolic-Consequences Argument in the Sex Robot Debate , 2017 .

[39]  John McCarthy Free will - even for robots , 2000, J. Exp. Theor. Artif. Intell..

[40]  Paul,et al.  Determinism, Free Will, and Moral Responsibility , 2013 .

[41]  Ryan Jenkins,et al.  Autonomous Machines, Moral Judgment, and Acting for the Right Reasons , 2015 .

[42]  Alan Wertheimer,et al.  Consent and Sexual Relations , 1996, Legal Theory.

[43]  Kenneth F. T. Cust,et al.  The Theory and Practice of Autonomy , 1991 .