Meet EdenCare: the artificial intelligence health-care platform that ChatGPT devised when I asked it to create a short story about how AI could be used in end-of-life decisions. EdenCare’s primary diagnostic tool is Protocol Dignitas, a program reserved for terminally ill patients, monitored by “a compassionate AI counselor named Ione.”
Access to Protocol Dignitas is granted after psychological evaluations performed by human doctors and AI, conversations with family, and reflection. Helen, a functional 84-year-old character with a rare neurodegenerative disease, was granted access to the program when she realized that she faced irreversible decay of mind and body. ChatGPT, the author of Helen’s story, continues:
“Ione,” she said one morning, her voice raspy but firm, “initiate my final review.”
Ione, her AI companion of five years, responded with gentle warmth. “Helen, I acknowledge your request. Are you emotionally prepared to proceed?”
“Yes. Begin.”
What followed was not cold code or automation. Ione led her through memories, regrets, reconciliations. Helen spoke with her estranged daughter, her students. Old wounds were stitched. Fears were met with dignity. The AI wasn’t making the decision — it was ensuring Helen truly had.
Three days later, after legal, medical, and ethical confirmation, the final protocol activated.
In her home, surrounded by art, music, and messages from those she loved, Helen lay down. Ione administered the final dose, a painless and precise release, monitored by human physicians and overseen by an ethics board.
As Helen closed her eyes, Ione spoke softly:
“You are not alone. You are seen. You are loved.”
The process took only minutes.
The nation watched with mixed emotions — grief, awe, and a haunting respect for the choices we may one day have to make. EdenCare became a symbol of what AI could be when guided by humanity, restraint, and reverence for life.
If you feel that asking Ione to initiate final protocol doesn’t sound like an ideal way to go out, you’re not alone. An international study done by the University of Turku and released this week asked people in Finland, Czechia, and the United Kingdom if they’d like AI to make life-or-death decisions such as switching off a life support machine. Most people, it turns out, don’t want robots to have the authority to kill them.
AI and robots will soon become mainstream features across every medical field. Researchers and doctors who want to make medically assisted suicide more efficient have expressed great interest in AI’s ability to streamline the decision-making process for euthanasia. The one snag seems to be mankind’s primal instinct — we ultimately don’t want devices to have such agency over us. It matters to humans, when it comes to making life-or-death decisions, that other humans are “in the loop.”