https://doi.org/10.25167/FF/6020
The growth of the digital afterlife industry raises questions about the limits of the “reproducibility” of human personhood, the truthfulness of relationships in bereavement, and compatibility with Catholic anthropology. The article aims to determine the ethical permissibility and conditions for the use of post-mortem avatars and to formulate design norms and pastoral guidelines. The methodology combines analysis of Church documents, a personalist theological-moral argument, a review of scholarship in grief psychology and AI ethics, and case studies of commercial solutions.
The analysis yields four main findings: (1) a post-mortem avatar is not a person nor a “continuity” of personal subjectivity, but an artefact; (2) the only admissible function is that of instrumentum memoriae, not a simulation of presence; (3) ethical minima for such systems include the deceased’s prior informed consent, strict transparency and unambiguous labelling, a ban on first-person narration and personification, protective mechanisms for the bereaved and for minors, and a ban on commercialising the “personality”; (4) pastorally, simulated presence may complicate grief and obscure eschatological hope.
AI can support the truth of memory but does not “revive” the dead; appropriate uses are archival and strictly conditioned. The article advocates a “digital testament,” impact assessments, pastoral guidance, and design standards, and indicates avenues for further research on the effects of griefbots on the grieving process. The study’s contribution lies in the first Polish-context synthesis of the digital afterlife industry from a theological-anthropological perspective, translated into concrete design and pastoral recommendations. The proposed framework helps distinguish admissible forms of digital commemoration from practices that are theologically and ethically problematic, and sets directions for further research and standards of practice.
Download files
Citation rules
Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
English
Język Polski
Deutsch
