Moral Imagination, Trading Zones, and the Role of the Ethicist in Nanotechnology

See [9].

“The truth of the doctrine of cultural (or historical—it is the same thing) relativism is that we can never apprehend another period’s imagination neatly, as though it were our own. The falsity of it is that we can therefore never genuinely apprehend it at all. We can apprehend it well enough, at least as well as we apprehend anything else not properly ours; but we do so not by looking behind the interfering glosses that connect us to it but through them” ([10]: 44).

Nanotechnology raises some unique challenges for regulation that arise from the multifunctional nature of the application. The orthpedic implant, which is usually regulated by FDA as a “device”, may also warrant consideration for regulation as a “drug” when it also contains a system for the controlled release of therapeutic agents (silver ions) to function as an antibiotic. Historically, the FDA clearance of an application as a “drug” has invited far greater scrutiny that its application as a “device”. As a result of this confusion, FDA has created a new category of a “combination drug-device” to regulate such applications. Stepping beyond the human body, a number of interactions at the ecosystem level warrant consideration, such as effects of nanosilver release on species earlier on within the food chain, such as fish, where bioaccumulations of toxins is known to be a major problem. The effect of nanosilver on beneficial bacteria, such as those within the body or at waste-water treatment plants is also largely unknown. All of these issues will require new trading zones that involve scientists, regulators, companies, ethicists and consumers

In guided self-assembly, a surface is altered so that when it is bombarded by molecules of a particular compound, these molecules will assemble themselves into the pattern suggested by the alteration.