The ethics of using 'bomb robots' as killing machines

When Dallas police officers told their chief, David Brown, that they planned to attach an explosive to a remote-controlled robot and kill the man who they believed had fatally shot five officers on Thursday night, he gave his approval, and told them not to "bring the building down." That's how the chief described the situation at a press conference on Monday. The goal is always to "make sure we do everything we can to go home to our loved ones," he said. The plan worked, marking what is believed to be the first time a United States police department killed a person by attaching an explosive to a robot. Much of the resulting conversation has centered around the robot, which, as many have reported, basically amounted to a remote-controlled car with an arm and a bomb, not something sophisticated, such as a drone flying above the clouds.