Emerging Conceptual, Ethical and Policy Issues in Bionanotechnology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

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2. Introduction

   1. Beyond Feasibility: Why Ethics Is Important for Bionanotechnology

      • Fabrice Jotterand

      Pages 3-10

3. Knowledge Production in Nanotechnoscience

   1. The World View of Nanotechnology – Philosophical Reflections

      • Andreas Woyke

      Pages 13-26

   2. Nanomachine: Technological Concept or Metaphor?

      • Xavier Guchet, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent

      Pages 27-41

   3. No Future for Nanotechnology? Historical Development vs. Global Expansion

      • Alfred Nordmann

      Pages 43-63

4. Ethics and (Bio)Nanotechnology

   1. Bionanotechnology: A New Challenge for Ethical Reflection?

      • Christoph Baumgartner

      Pages 67-84

   2. Nanoparticles: Risk Management and the Precautionary Principle

      • Armin Grunwald

      Pages 85-102

   3. Anticipating the Unknown: The Ethics of Nanotechnology

      • Joseph C. pitt

      Pages 103-116

   4. Applications of Nanotechnology in the Biomedical Sciences: Small Materials, Big Impacts, and Unknown Consequences

      • Audy G. Whitman, Phelps J. Lambert, Ossie F. Dyson, Shaw M. Akula

      Pages 117-130

5. Public Policy and (Bio)Nanotechnology

   1. Nanobiotechnology and Ethics: Converging Civil Society Discourses

      • Alexandra Plows, Michael Reinsborough

      Pages 133-156

   2. Allotropes of Fieldwork in Nanotechnology

      • Christopher Kelty

      Pages 157-180

   3. Law, Regulation and the Medical Use of Nanotechnology

      • Kenneth A. De Ville

      Pages 181-200

6. Human Enhancement and (Bio)Nanotechnology

   1. Stage Two Enhancements

      • George Khushf

      Pages 203-218

   2. Nanotechnology, the Body and the Mind

      • M. Ellen Mitchell

      Pages 219-238

   3. Nanotechnology and Human Flourishing: Toward a Framework for Assessing Radical Human Enhancements

      • Ronald Sandler

      Pages 239-254

7. Back Matter

   Pages 255-264

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Nanobiotechnology is the convergence of existing and new biotechnology with the 1 ability to manipulate matter at or near the molecular level. This ability to manipulate matter on a scale of 100 nanometers (nm) or less is what constitutes the nanotechnology revolution occurring today, the potentially vast economic and social implications of which are yet to be fully understood (Royal Society, 2004). The most immediate way to understand the implications of nanobiotechnology for ethics is to consider the real life concerns of communities that are mobilizing within civil society. The conflicts and ethical debates surrounding nanotechnology will, almost by definition, emerge on the fault lines between different civil society actors, researchers and financial interests associated with nanobiotechnology, as well as (potentially) government regulators. These fault lines are all reflected within the concerns (as expressed d- cursively) of the communities mobilizing. This chapter will explore converging d- courses regarding converging technologies. Converging Technologies (CT) are already a familiar theme in the next gene- tion of biotechnology, nanotechnology, pharmacogenomics and proteomics research 2 and development. Nanobiotechnology means that previously separate disciplines (IT, physics, chemistry, and biology) are merging and converging to create new applications and even new life forms through converged technological platforms. Schummer (2004), and Glimell and Fogelberg (2003, p. 43), note the predominance of interdisciplinarity as a core theme of nano-discourse.

• Ethics
• biotechnology
• emergent technologies
• human enhancement technologies
• legal aspects
• nanoethics
• nanoscience
• nanotechnology
• public policy

From the reviews:

"This is a very important book. The general public really have no clear idea of what happen in the next twenty years regarding medical care … and the manipulation of life. Fabrice Jotterand has brought … these issues to our attention in a non-dramatic, non-alarmist way … . this book will become a core text for students in the relevant disciplines and I suggest should be compulsory reading for those who in any way involved in policy decision making in the medical health care system." (Rob Harle, Metapsychology Online Reviews, Vol. 13 (19), 2008)

• Southwestern Medical Center, University of Texas, Dallas, USA

  Fabrice Jotterand

Policies and ethics