The digitalisation of society demands ethical reflection on the use of technical support systems in deaconry and other social sectors. In this study, Melissa Henne presents several approaches which can be used to analyse the deployment of these systems in deaconry. She illustrates how many ethical implications are related to these systems and how complex they are. To handle these implications, the purpose of using technical support systems has to be specified, and this specification has to correspond to the purpose of diaconal work. Henne uses the capabilities approach by Martha Nussbaum, which defines the requirements for a life in dignity, as a basis for determining these purposes, recommends this approach as a conceptual framework for ethical reflections and tests it on an existing technical support system.
