Digital twins running amok? Open questions for the ethics of an emerging medical technology
Journal of Medical Ethics 47 (6):407-408 (2021)
Abstract
Digital twinning in medicine refers to the idea of simulating a person’s organs, muscles or perhaps their entire body, in order to arrive more effectively at accurate diagnoses, to make treatment recommendations that reflect chances of success and possible side-effects, and to better understand the long-term trajectory of an individual’s overall condition. Digital twins, in these ways, build on the recent movement toward personalised medicine,1 and they undoubtedly present us with exciting opportunities to advance our health. Of course, the opportunities are accompanied by newfound challenges—a common refrain in discussions surrounding emerging technologies. In a recent article, Matthias Braun surveys numerous problems, including the precision of simulations, ownership and consent to the use of digital models, and issues of justice in assuring equitable access to novel medical systems.2 In particular, he places special emphasis on the notion of representation. According to Braun, proper representation naturally calls for correspondence—namely a precise model offering dynamic, real-time feedback as well as transparency, both for the patient and the practitioner, in terms of the data being employed. While technical challenges remain, these goals are quite clear and relatively uncontroversial. Where a host of questions arise, however, is in the discussion on the interaction between the represented persons and their simulations. Alongside questions regarding ownership of one’s digital twin, Braun raises the concern that ‘giving …DOI
10.1136/medethics-2021-107526
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Citations of this work
Ethics of digital twins: four challenges.Matthias Braun - 2022 - Journal of Medical Ethics 48 (9):579-580.
References found in this work
Represent me: please! Towards an ethics of digital twins in medicine.Matthias Braun - 2021 - Journal of Medical Ethics 47 (6):394-400.
Meta Consent – A Flexible Solution to the Problem of Secondary Use of Health Data.Thomas Ploug & Søren Holm - 2016 - Bioethics 30 (9):721-732.