Thematic Continuities and Fresh Perspectives

Excerpt

The current issue of NanoEthics. Studies of New and Emerging Technologies starts with an illuminating analysis of the relevance of informed consent concerning the risks posed by engineered nanomaterials. Shannon Lydia Spruit, Ibo van de Poel and Neelke Doorn concede that we can learn from experiences of informed consent in treatment and research contexts but argue that we should be aware that informed consent traditionally pertains to certain aspects of the relationships between doctors and patients and between researchers and research participants rather than to the relationships between producers and consumers or between employers and employees, which are of greater relevance in the case of engineered nanomaterials. The authors analyse three major relational factors that influence whether valid informed consent is obtainable: dependency, personal proximity and the existence of shared interests. In the conclusions, they draw from their highly original analysis; Spruit and her colleagues suggest that a constructive yet speculative approach to informed consent would conceive these three relational aspects as communicating vessels. …