Bioethical perspectives on dehumanization in nursing care in the context of artificial intelligence

Abstract

The incorporation of artificial intelligence into healthcare systems has significantly transformed clinical care and management. In nursing, a profession centered on patient care, an ethical challenge arises: how to integrate intelligent technologies without compromising the relational, empathetic, and humanized dimension of care. Tools such as task automation, predictive monitoring, and diagnostic assistance offer improvements in efficiency and safety, but they also pose risks of depersonalization by shifting the human encounter toward predominantly technological processes. From a bioethical perspective, different models help analyze these tensions. Principlism structures ethical deliberation around autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice, facilitating the identification of ethical conflicts, although it may favor standardized decisions that reduce personalized care. The pragmatic–utilitarian model evaluates morality according to outcomes, prioritizing efficiency and resource optimization, but it carries the risk of reducing the patient to metrics and data. The personalist model, focused on the ontological dignity of the person and principles such as the defense of life, responsible freedom, wholeness, and subsidiarity, proposes that artificial intelligence should be subordinated to the moral act of care, enhancing human relationships and promoting the patient’s integral well-being. AI constitutes a valuable tool to improve safety, efficiency, and continuity of care; however, its ethical implementation requires policies and practices that preserve the nurse–patient relationship, empathy, and the moral dimension of care, ensuring that technology complements rather than replaces the humanizing essence of nursing.