The contribution at hand explores the nature, scope and limits of ethical counselling in technology research and development settings in which the target group consists of frail old persons with cognitive impairments. In this paper, ethical counselling is understood as an activity consisting of elements of peer review, supervision and consulting. A central task of an ethical counsellor in a design setting that involves older people with cognitive impairments is to increase the designers' awareness of the ethical dimensions inherent in their work. The paper provides reasons for adopting a systematic approach to ethics and an ethical counsellor in technology design projects that cooperate with vulnerable users and presents frameworks for the assessment of emerging ethical questions.