Ethical perspectives on femtech: Moving from concerns to capability-sensitive designs.

Femtech is the collective name for technologies that address female health needs. Femtech applications can help women digitally track their period, manage their fertility, and support their pregnancy. Although femtech has beneficial potential, there are various ethical concerns to be raised with current femtech apps. In this article, we discuss three of the main ethical concerns with femtech apps regarding (1) medical reliability, (2) privacy, and (3) gender stereotyping and epistemic injustice, and we explore how Capability Sensitive Design, a novel design framework for health and well-being technologies, is able to mitigate these concerns and help create morally sensitive femtech.

Considering the ethical implications of digital collaboration in the Food Sector.

The Internet of Food Things Network+ (IoFT) and the Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Intelligence for Automated Investigation for Scientific Discovery Network+ (AI3SD) brought together an interdisciplinary multi-institution working group to create an ethical framework for digital collaboration in the food industry. This will enable the exploration of implications and consequences (both intentional and unintentional) of using cutting-edge technologies to support the implementation of data trusts and other forms of digital collaboration in the food sector. This article describes how we identified areas for ethical consideration with respect to digital collaboration and the use of Industry 4.0 technologies in the food sector and describes the different interdisciplinary methodologies being used to produce this framework. The research questions and objectives that are being addressed by the working group are laid out, with a report on our ongoing work. The article concludes with recommendations about working on projects in this area.

IEEE P7001: A Proposed Standard on Transparency.

This paper describes IEEE P7001, a new draft standard on transparency of autonomous systems. In the paper, we outline the development and structure of the draft standard. We present the rationale for transparency as a measurable, testable property. We outline five stakeholder groups: users, the general public and bystanders, safety certification agencies, incident/accident investigators and lawyers/expert witnesses, and explain the thinking behind the normative definitions of "levels" of transparency for each stakeholder group in P7001. The paper illustrates the application of P7001 through worked examples of both specification and assessment of fictional autonomous systems.

Capability Sensitive Design for Health and Wellbeing Technologies.

This article presents the framework Capability Sensitive Design (CSD), which consists of merging the design methodology Value Sensitive Design (VSD) with Martha Nussbaum's capability theory. CSD aims to normatively assess technology design in general, and technology design for health and wellbeing in particular. Unique to CSD is its ability to account for human diversity and to counter (structural) injustices that manifest in technology design. The basic framework of CSD is demonstrated by applying it to the hypothetical design case of a therapy chatbot for mental health. By applying CSD to a design case, the merits of this new framework over the standard VSD approach become apparent. Also, the application demonstrates what a technology design would look like when attention is paid to capabilities right from the start of the design process.

Two ethical concerns about the use of persuasive technology for vulnerable people.

Persuasive technologies for health-related behaviour change give rise to ethical concerns. As of yet, no study has explicitly attended to ethical concerns arising with the design and use of these technologies for vulnerable people. This is striking because these technologies are designed to help people change their attitudes or behaviours, which is particularly valuable for vulnerable people. Vulnerability is a complex concept that is both an ontological condition of our humanity and highly context-specific. Using the Mackenzie, Rogers and Dodds' taxonomy of vulnerability, this paper identifies (a) the wrongs or harms to which a person is vulnerable, (b) the source of this vulnerability, and (c) the safeguards needed in response. Two ethical concerns with the design of persuasive technology for vulnerable people are discussed: the concerns of taking into account users' interests and their autonomy.

HIV and AIDS risk behaviors among female jail detainees: implications for public health policy.

OBJECTIVES: We examined the sexual and injection drug use HIV and AIDS risk behaviors of female jail detainees. METHODS: The sample (n = 948) was stratified by charge type (felony vs misdemeanor) and race/ethnicity (African American, non-Hispanic White, Hispanic, other). RESULTS: Non-Hispanic White women, women arrested for less serious charges, women who had prior arrests, women arrested on drug charges, and women with severe mental disorders were at especially high risk for sexual and injection drug transmission of HIV and AIDS. CONCLUSIONS: Many women at risk for HIV and AIDS--women who use drugs, women who trade sex for money or drugs, homeless women, and women with mental disorders--eventually will cycle through jail. Because most jail detainees return to their communities within days, providing HIV and AIDS education in jail must become a public health priority.