The goal of this paper by Ron Sandler of Northeastern University is to clearly place social and ethical issues within ongoing debates on the responsible development of nanotechnologies. The paper presents a broad framework to structure the analysis and discussion of ethical issues, which builds on improving our understanding of the social, cultural, and moral context of emerging technologies and assessing the status of these issues as the technologies evolve.
The author takes on some of the common misconceptions that undermine our ability to address social and ethical issues early and effectively, such as the “it’s too early to discuss ethics” excuse and the tendency to frame new technologies in terms of their inevitability (and inevitable good). The paper highlights, through theory and research linked to case studies, a wide variety of possible social and ethical issues linked to emerging nanotechnologies, ranging from environmental justice to human enhancement and the myth of the techno-fix—our tendency to favor technological fixes to problems rather than behavioral changes or other major shifts. Indeed, the framework outlined in this paper can be applied to a wide variety of emerging technologies. this paper will provide a framework for thinking through some of those impacts.
The purpose of this report is to describe the salience of these issues and to draw attention to them by articulating what they are, why they matter and what is involved in addressing them. To this end, the report:
- identifies the crucial roles of ethics in responsible development of technology;
- dispels common misconceptions about the social and ethical issues associated with emerging nanotechnologies;
- provides a typology of the social and ethical issues associated with emerging nanotechnologies and identifies several issues within each type;
- discusses in detail one paradigmatic issue of each type to illustrate significant features of the issues within the type; and
- emphasizes how social and ethical issues intersect with government functions and responsibilities.
This is a report on the ethical issues associated with emerging nanotechnologies, broadly construed to include goals, opportunities, complications, barriers and limits. It is not a report on the ethical implications of nanotechnology (the preferred NNI terminology), which are not yet determined.
this is not a report on the ethical challenges of nanotechnology, since emerging nanotechnologies present as much in social and ethical opportunities as in potential social and ethical problems, and ethics is as much aspirational as proscriptive.