5 Sex Robots and the Rights of the Disabled

In this chapter, I propose to argue that the right to sexual satisfaction of severely physically and mentally disabled people, and elderly people who suffer from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, can be potentially fulfilled by deploying sex robots. This would enable us to satisfy the sexual needs of many people who cannot provide for their own sexual satisfaction without at the same time violating anybody's right to sexual self-determination. I do not offer a full-blown moral justification of deploying sex robots in such cases, as not all morally relevant concerns can be addressed here; rather, I put forward a plausible way of fulfilling acute sexual needs without violating anybody's sexual rights.