© David Luzzi, Univ. of Pennsylvania/Photo Researchers Inc.
Nanotechnology can learn much from history. As the biotechnology industry recently discovered, ignoring public policy and social issues – namely, possible heath and environmental hazards from genetically modified foods – invites a public backlash that crippled progress and sent corporate stocks plummeting. If nanotechnology is billed as the "Next Industrial Revolution",1 then it also must raise a host of important social and ethical questions that we need to consider now.
The following are some of issues in "nanoethics." Many of them are familiar to philosophy and ethics, but considering them in the context of nanotechnology is important and can reveal new insights.
Do we have a right to research, or is some too dangerous to publish or conduct, such as a recently published recipe for making the 1918 killer influenza virus?2 Nanotechnology has the potential to be even more destructive, since it ...
