During her presentation, Long discussed ethical questions raised by the role of technology in caring for frail, elderly people and the influence of culture in the matter. She questioned whether culture plays a role in the way a person interprets the ethics of using technology to care for the elderly.

Long’s presentation was the last in a series of lectures given throughout the semester.

Called the Bioethics East-West: Cross-Cultural Conversations at the Edges of Life colloquium, the series brought 10 professors to MSU from across the world to talk about issues pertaining to the beginning and end of life.

Does culture matter, Long asked her audience, in whether a person is comfortable with a hotel where a card must be placed in a slot for the electricity to work? Does it affect how a person feels about a device that sends out an emergency signal when an elderly person is in the bathtub for an extended amount of time?

Does it affect how they feel about robots that serve as companions for elderly people?

“Are there differences in how you answer that question whether you’re in Japan or the United States,” Long said during the lecture.

The series used a cross-cultural perspective, alternating between Asian and American perspectives, said Ann Mongoven, an assistant professor of philosophy with the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences, who coordinated Tuesday’s lecture.

“One of the questions is just how if you go back and forth between different cultural perspectives, does it challenge the way we conceive these issues,” Mongoven said.

Long said during her lecture that her questions were raised by the fact that Japan is seeing a dramatic increase in the percentage of its population that is elderly. In 1970, 7 percent of the population was 65 or older, she said.

Now, about 22 percent of the population is older than 65, she said.

The shift has created a sense of crisis on the part of the government, Long said. Who can care for these people?

“Caregiving became a burden — redefined in a lot of ways as a burden,” she said. “There was an ideological change — even elderly people should be independent.”

Previously, elderly people were expected to be “fairly passive” members of the family and to accept death when it came, Long said.

“Now, what’s happening is that old people are supposed to remain independent of support, to keep trying to be functional,” she said.

This has led to the development of new technologies that take on the burden of caring for frail, elderly people, Long said. But it is important to consider the ethics behind this use of technology, she said.

“I think because both in our society and in Japan there seems to be a tendency that we call technological impairment — to utilize technology as it becomes available and to ask questions later,” Long said after the presentation. “I think it’s just important in terms of creating the kind of society that we want to create to think about these things.”

Physiology junior Dilla Muthukuda, who attended the lecture, said the issues Long raised are important to consider because they are relevant to America.

“The baby boomers (are) getting to that age where they are the older generation,” she said. “I think these questions about the kind of care and how to take care of the generation is becoming increasingly important.”