Table Of ContentThe International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology 10
Bert Gordijn
Anthony Mark Cutter Editors
In Pursuit of
Nanoethics
In Pursuit of Nanoethics
The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology
VOLUME 10
Editors
Anthony Mark Cutter, Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire,
United Kingdom
Bert Gordijn, Ethics Institute, Dublin City University, Ireland
Gary E. Marchant, Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology, Arizona State
University, USA
Alain Pompidou, European Patent Offi ce, Munich, Germany
Editorial Board
Dieter Birnbacher, Institute of Philosophy, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Germany
Roger Brownsword, King’s College London, UK
Ruth Chadwick, ESRC Centre for Economic & Social Aspects of Genomics, Cardiff, UK
Paul Stephen Dempsey, Institute of Air & Space Law, Université de Montréal, Canada
Michael Froomkin, University of Miami Law School, Florida, USA
Serge Gutwirth, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium
Henk ten Have, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA
Søren Holm, University of Manchester, UK
George Khushf, Center for Bioethics, University of South Carolina, USA
Justice Michael Kirby, High Court of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Bartha Maria Knoppers, Université de Montréal, Canada
David Krieger, The Waging Peace Foundation, California, USA
Graeme Laurie, AHRC Centre for Intellectual Property and Technology Law, UK
René Oosterlinck, European Space Agency, Paris
Edmund Pellegrino, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, USA
John Weckert, School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Australia
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Bert Gordijn (cid:129) Anthony Mark Cutter
Editors
In Pursuit of Nanoethics
Editors
Bert Gordijn Anthony Mark Cutter
Dublin City University University of Central Lancashire
Glasnevin, Dublin 9 Preston
Ireland United Kingdom
ISSN 1875-0044 ISSN 1875-0036 (electronic)
ISBN 978-1-4020-6816-4 ISBN 978-1-4020-6817-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-6817-1
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013946662
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Contents
1 In Pursuit of Nanoethics: An Introduction ........................................... 1
Bert Gordijn and Anthony Mark Cutter
Part I Concepts and Novelty
2 On the Novelty of Nanotechnology: A Philosophical Essay ................ 15
Joachim Schummer
3 Does Nanotechnology Require a New “Nanoethics”? .......................... 31
Søren Holm
4 GM Food and Nanotechnology .............................................................. 39
Ronald Sandler
Part II Opportunities and Challenges
5 Nanomedicine and Body Modifi cation: Critical Perspectives ............. 61
Melanie Latham
6 Nanotechnology and Biodiversity .......................................................... 73
Darryl Macer
7 Nanotechnologically Enhanced Combat Systems:
The Downside of Invulnerability ........................................................... 89
Robert Simpson and Robert Sparrow
Part III Risks and Precaution
8 Risk, Precaution, and Nanotechnology ................................................. 107
Fritz Allhoff
9 The Risks of Nanomedicine and the Precautionary Principle ............ 131
Roberto Andorno and Nikola Biller-Andorno
v
vi Contents
10 Ethical and Societal Values in Nanotoxicology ..................................... 147
Kevin C. Elliott
Part IV Public Debate and Policy
11 Nanotechnology, Risk and Public Perceptions ..................................... 167
Philip Macnaghten
12 Unlocking the Futures of Nanotechology. Future-Oriented
Narratives and Access to the Public Discourse on Nanoscale ............. 183
Simone Arnaldi
13 Nanotechnology and Ethics – European
Public Policies .......................................................................................... 193
Henk ten Have
Index ................................................................................................................. 209
Contributors
Fritz Allhoff Department of Philosophy , Western Michigan University , Kalamazoo ,
MI , USA
Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University , Canberra ,
Australia
Roberto Andorno Faculty of Law , University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland
Simone Arnaldi Centre for Environmental Law Decisions and Corporate Ethical
Certifi cation , University of Padova , Padova , Italy
Nikola Biller-Andorno Institute of Biomedical Ethics , University of Zurich ,
Zurich , Switzerland
Anthony Mark Cutter University of Central Lancashire , Preston , UK
Kevin C. Elliott Department of Philosophy , University of South Carolina ,
Columbia , SC , USA
Bert Gordijn Institute of Ethics , Dublin City University , Glasnevin, Dublin 9 ,
Ireland
Søren Holm Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, School of Law , University of
Manchester , Manchester , UK
University of Oslo , Oslo , Norway
Melanie Latham Manchester School of Law , Manchester Metropolitan University ,
Manchester , UK
Darryl Macer Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the
Pacifi c (RUSHSAP) , UNESCO , Bangkok , Thailand
Philip Macnaghten Department of Geography , Durham University , Durham , UK
Department of Science and Technology Policy, Institute of Geosciences , University
of Campinas – UNICAMP , Brazil
vii
viii Contributors
Ronald Sandler Department of Philosophy and Religion , Northeastern University ,
Boston , MA , USA
Joachim Schummer Department of Philosophy , University of Karlsruhe ,
Karlsruhe , Germany
Robert Simpson School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies ,
Monash University , Melbourne , Australia
Robert Sparrow School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies ,
Monash University , Melbourne , Australia
Henk ten Have Center for Healthcare Ethics , Duquesne University , Pittsburgh ,
PA , USA
Chapter 1
In Pursuit of Nanoethics: An Introduction
Bert Gordijn and Anthony Mark Cutter
1.1 Nanotechnology and the Birth of Nanoethics
Nanotechnology is a relatively new interdisciplinary fi eld of technology that explicitly
focuses on objects with incredibly small dimensions. The prefi x “nano” signifi es
one billionth of something. Thus one nanometer is one billionth of a meter. Norio
Taniguchi from the Science University of Tokyo is generally assumed to have
coined the term “nanotechnology” in the early 1970s (Taniguchi 1 974 ). Somewhat
later, in 1986, the term became more widely know, when Eric Drexler published his
Engines of Creation . T he Coming Era of Nanotechnology , a book written for a large
audience with an engaging style. Due to its good readability and visionary character
Engines of Creation greatly infl uenced the popular perception of nanotechnology.
In Drexler’s vision of nanotechnology the idea of the ‘universal assembler’ is
imperative. It is an infi nitesimal construction gadget that can use surrounding matter
as its basic building material. Due to its small size it can assemble virtually any
chemically stable molecular structure that it has been programmed to put together
in an atom-by-atom manner (Drexler 1 986 , p. 14). Of course, building macro
scale products in this way with only one single assembler would take quite a long
time (Drexler 1986 , p. 58). In Engines of Creation , however, Drexler envisions huge
numbers of assemblers that would jointly undertake this task in an organized way.
First one would have to generate a critical mass of assemblers. To this effect
the available assemblers at the start would initially create copies of themselves.
B. Gordijn (*)
Institute of Ethics , Dublin City University ,
Henry Grattan Building, Glasnevin, Dublin 9 , Ireland
e-mail: [email protected]
A. M. Cutter
University of Central Lancashire , Preston , UK
e-mail: [email protected]
B. Gordijn and A.M. Cutter (eds.), In Pursuit of Nanoethics, The International Library 1
of Ethics, Law and Technology 10, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-6817-1_1,
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
