Healthcare is one of the key sectors in which nanotechnology is likely to make a major impact in the future. The introduction of nanotechnology to existing medical practices is expected to be extensive, performance enhancing, and economical. The paper sets out to locate nanotechnology advancements in healthcare within the larger context of the public health infrastructure and service delivery needs in India. Prospects for the success of nanotechnology in Indian healthcare would depend on how two interrelated processes pan out in the future. These processes being, a) the extent to which nanotechnology development would be affected by the infrastructural and resource constraints in the Indian health sector, and b) the extent to which it can in turn potentially broaden India's vertical medical structures by dint of being a platform technology. The paper contextualizes developments in the field not only with regard to the existing social, economic and technical forces at work in India, but also in view of the challenges that developing countries face in common. Socially embedding nanotechnology would entail, among other things, effective technology transfer in sectors that address a country's developmental needs. In developmental sectors such as health, sanitation and water, enhancing local skills and encouraging a sense of ownership in society should be at the core of nanotechnology governance. The paper further goes on to examine the challenges that policy makers and regulators need to address in order to effectively govern the technology. This broad rubric of common challenges and shared vulnerability to nanotechnology risks provides the backdrop against which issues of resource prioritization and constraints impinging nanotechnology development in India can be better understood.
{"title":"Nano Applications, Mega Challenges: The Case of the Health Sector in India","authors":"Jayashree Vivekanandan","doi":"10.2202/1941-6008.1117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1117","url":null,"abstract":"Healthcare is one of the key sectors in which nanotechnology is likely to make a major impact in the future. The introduction of nanotechnology to existing medical practices is expected to be extensive, performance enhancing, and economical. The paper sets out to locate nanotechnology advancements in healthcare within the larger context of the public health infrastructure and service delivery needs in India. Prospects for the success of nanotechnology in Indian healthcare would depend on how two interrelated processes pan out in the future. These processes being, a) the extent to which nanotechnology development would be affected by the infrastructural and resource constraints in the Indian health sector, and b) the extent to which it can in turn potentially broaden India's vertical medical structures by dint of being a platform technology. The paper contextualizes developments in the field not only with regard to the existing social, economic and technical forces at work in India, but also in view of the challenges that developing countries face in common. Socially embedding nanotechnology would entail, among other things, effective technology transfer in sectors that address a country's developmental needs. In developmental sectors such as health, sanitation and water, enhancing local skills and encouraging a sense of ownership in society should be at the core of nanotechnology governance. The paper further goes on to examine the challenges that policy makers and regulators need to address in order to effectively govern the technology. This broad rubric of common challenges and shared vulnerability to nanotechnology risks provides the backdrop against which issues of resource prioritization and constraints impinging nanotechnology development in India can be better understood.","PeriodicalId":88318,"journal":{"name":"Studies in ethics, law, and technology","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2202/1941-6008.1117","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68799622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Technological innovation is often associated with promising improvement of life conditions and health. However, potential benefits are largely dependent on affordability, availability and accessibility and too often technology fails to attain those promises on a global scale. The possibilities offered by nanotechnologies to develop more cost-effective interventions in relation to diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of diseases, as well as to advance in the fields of energy, agriculture and water treatment, are considered from a global health perspective. Besides concerns related to safety, the main challenge rests in avoiding that the introduction of nanotechnologies further increasing existing inequities in health and access to appropriate services. The main responsibility in facing this challenge lies with national governments and international organizations, with new emerging roles for industry and academia which pose a number of questions of ethical relevance. We identify the danger linked to a too narrow bio-medical approach and argue that the development of a stronger "global conscience," fostered by open knowledge sharing and wide information about potential benefits and harm to public health, represents a moral imperative and a critical element for the success of any technological innovation in effectively contributing to the improvement of global health.
{"title":"Nanotechnologies and Challenges for Global Health","authors":"E. Missoni, G. Foffani","doi":"10.2202/1941-6008.1119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1119","url":null,"abstract":"Technological innovation is often associated with promising improvement of life conditions and health. However, potential benefits are largely dependent on affordability, availability and accessibility and too often technology fails to attain those promises on a global scale. The possibilities offered by nanotechnologies to develop more cost-effective interventions in relation to diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of diseases, as well as to advance in the fields of energy, agriculture and water treatment, are considered from a global health perspective. Besides concerns related to safety, the main challenge rests in avoiding that the introduction of nanotechnologies further increasing existing inequities in health and access to appropriate services. The main responsibility in facing this challenge lies with national governments and international organizations, with new emerging roles for industry and academia which pose a number of questions of ethical relevance. We identify the danger linked to a too narrow bio-medical approach and argue that the development of a stronger \"global conscience,\" fostered by open knowledge sharing and wide information about potential benefits and harm to public health, represents a moral imperative and a critical element for the success of any technological innovation in effectively contributing to the improvement of global health.","PeriodicalId":88318,"journal":{"name":"Studies in ethics, law, and technology","volume":"86 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2202/1941-6008.1119","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68799927","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of Rethinking Informed Consent in Bioethics","authors":"D. Resnik","doi":"10.2202/1941-6008.1091","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1091","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":88318,"journal":{"name":"Studies in ethics, law, and technology","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2202/1941-6008.1091","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68798748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper explores a framework for thinking about risks inherent in emerging technologies; given uncertainty about the magnitudeor even natureof those risks, deliberation about those technologies is challenged. §1 develops a conceptual framework for risk, and §2 integrates that conception into cost-benefit analysis. Given uncertainty, we are often pushed toward precautionary approaches, and such approaches are explored in §3. These first three sections are largely literature review, and then a positive argument for how to think about the relationship between risk, precaution, and uncertainty is offered in §4.
{"title":"Risk, Precaution, and Emerging Technologies","authors":"Fritz Allhoff","doi":"10.2202/1941-6008.1078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1078","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores a framework for thinking about risks inherent in emerging technologies; given uncertainty about the magnitudeor even natureof those risks, deliberation about those technologies is challenged. §1 develops a conceptual framework for risk, and §2 integrates that conception into cost-benefit analysis. Given uncertainty, we are often pushed toward precautionary approaches, and such approaches are explored in §3. These first three sections are largely literature review, and then a positive argument for how to think about the relationship between risk, precaution, and uncertainty is offered in §4.","PeriodicalId":88318,"journal":{"name":"Studies in ethics, law, and technology","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2202/1941-6008.1078","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68798258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the midst of available studies on the relation between technology or science and religion, one of the vital and early episodes of this relation within the Islamic tradition did not receive the due attention from modern researchers. This episode has to do with the discussions of Muslim scholars (Ulama) on using the then emerging technology of printing to reproduce the sacred scripture of Muslims, namely, the Qur'an. The main discussions among the ulama on this issue took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the Ottoman Empire was an important power in the Islamic world. The main question raised here is: what are the juristic arguments used by the Ulama to justify their objection to print the Qur'an? At the end, this article argues that these arguments have not been the sole agent in this issue. Social reality also played an important role and was ultimately, at least partially, responsible for a considerable shift in the standpoints of the Ulama towards this issue especially from the nineteenth century onwards.
{"title":"The Interplay of Technology and Sacredness in Islam: Discussions of Muslim Scholars on Printing the Qur'an","authors":"M. Ghaly","doi":"10.2202/1941-6008.1079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1079","url":null,"abstract":"In the midst of available studies on the relation between technology or science and religion, one of the vital and early episodes of this relation within the Islamic tradition did not receive the due attention from modern researchers. This episode has to do with the discussions of Muslim scholars (Ulama) on using the then emerging technology of printing to reproduce the sacred scripture of Muslims, namely, the Qur'an. The main discussions among the ulama on this issue took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the Ottoman Empire was an important power in the Islamic world. The main question raised here is: what are the juristic arguments used by the Ulama to justify their objection to print the Qur'an? At the end, this article argues that these arguments have not been the sole agent in this issue. Social reality also played an important role and was ultimately, at least partially, responsible for a considerable shift in the standpoints of the Ulama towards this issue especially from the nineteenth century onwards.","PeriodicalId":88318,"journal":{"name":"Studies in ethics, law, and technology","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2202/1941-6008.1079","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68798424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Living in an economically developed country means being blessed and burdened with unprecedented access to information. We struggle to absorb and evaluate a cacophonic flow of information and are largely overwhelmed. Because that flow is unlikely to ebb, we are challenged to devise strategies to differentiate and manage the information. Yet we do not have the reliably stable world views that guided our ancestors and have not forged successor views that provide reliable criteria by which to evaluate the information thrust upon us.This paper's statement of the difficulties of evaluating information in the modern world is not an argument against facts. Nor is it a derivative argument against technology that is implicated in a casual explanation for the rapid turnover of facts. It is instead a caution about the difficulties of securing a firm grasp on the relevant facts when new facts, reduced to bloodless data points, steadily press upon us and facts, new and old, are routinely spun to promote an agenda.A noteworthy consideration in the devising of strategies to cope with this unsteady wonderland of facts is the recognition that the rapid evolution of technologies may predispose us to discard information before it is appropriately evaluated. Immersion in a technology-rich culture may inculcate habits that dull our evaluative capacities and mechanically displace information that has not been recently applied without regard to the quality (perhaps the timelessness) of the information. We need to structure our mental filters and cultural dispositions to accommodate the volume and manipulation of facts in order to assure that the timeless facts are not expunged by neglect or disuse.
{"title":"A Wonderland of Disposable Facts","authors":"Andrew Askland","doi":"10.2202/1941-6008.1076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1076","url":null,"abstract":"Living in an economically developed country means being blessed and burdened with unprecedented access to information. We struggle to absorb and evaluate a cacophonic flow of information and are largely overwhelmed. Because that flow is unlikely to ebb, we are challenged to devise strategies to differentiate and manage the information. Yet we do not have the reliably stable world views that guided our ancestors and have not forged successor views that provide reliable criteria by which to evaluate the information thrust upon us.This paper's statement of the difficulties of evaluating information in the modern world is not an argument against facts. Nor is it a derivative argument against technology that is implicated in a casual explanation for the rapid turnover of facts. It is instead a caution about the difficulties of securing a firm grasp on the relevant facts when new facts, reduced to bloodless data points, steadily press upon us and facts, new and old, are routinely spun to promote an agenda.A noteworthy consideration in the devising of strategies to cope with this unsteady wonderland of facts is the recognition that the rapid evolution of technologies may predispose us to discard information before it is appropriately evaluated. Immersion in a technology-rich culture may inculcate habits that dull our evaluative capacities and mechanically displace information that has not been recently applied without regard to the quality (perhaps the timelessness) of the information. We need to structure our mental filters and cultural dispositions to accommodate the volume and manipulation of facts in order to assure that the timeless facts are not expunged by neglect or disuse.","PeriodicalId":88318,"journal":{"name":"Studies in ethics, law, and technology","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2202/1941-6008.1076","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68797654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
E. Mordini, David Wright, P. De Hert, E. Mantovani, Kush Wadhwa, J. Thestrup, Guido Van Steendam
Ethical questions about information and communications technologies (ICT) have been debated since World War II. Western democracies have had more than 50 years of experience in addressing and organising the ethical, social and legal aspects (ESLA) of scientific and technological developments. However, this expertise, tradition and experience are not enough to manage the most urgent ethical and social issues and contemporary challenges involving ICT. A systematic and institutional organisation of social values in the context of modern ICT tools is needed.This paper focuses on four major areas: (i) developing a specific approach to ethical issues raised by ICT; (ii) describing in more detail the age-related digital divide in Europe; (iii) identifying technology trends and emerging challenges; and (iv) defining the legal framework for inclusion of senior citizens in the digital society. The paper then concludes with a summary of its key points on the basis of which it makes three proposals as a contribution to efforts aimed at overcoming the exclusion of senior citizens from today's Information Society.
{"title":"Ethics, e-Inclusion and Ageing","authors":"E. Mordini, David Wright, P. De Hert, E. Mantovani, Kush Wadhwa, J. Thestrup, Guido Van Steendam","doi":"10.2202/1941-6008.1093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1093","url":null,"abstract":"Ethical questions about information and communications technologies (ICT) have been debated since World War II. Western democracies have had more than 50 years of experience in addressing and organising the ethical, social and legal aspects (ESLA) of scientific and technological developments. However, this expertise, tradition and experience are not enough to manage the most urgent ethical and social issues and contemporary challenges involving ICT. A systematic and institutional organisation of social values in the context of modern ICT tools is needed.This paper focuses on four major areas: (i) developing a specific approach to ethical issues raised by ICT; (ii) describing in more detail the age-related digital divide in Europe; (iii) identifying technology trends and emerging challenges; and (iv) defining the legal framework for inclusion of senior citizens in the digital society. The paper then concludes with a summary of its key points on the basis of which it makes three proposals as a contribution to efforts aimed at overcoming the exclusion of senior citizens from today's Information Society.","PeriodicalId":88318,"journal":{"name":"Studies in ethics, law, and technology","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2202/1941-6008.1093","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68798849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
New advances in genomics changed the research landscape significantly in the last few years. The power and significance of already existing tissue collections is enhanced by their growing size, and all over the world national projects aim to connect with each other at the international level, calling for integrated and common regulations in the transnational research field. The post genomics era faces problems that are partially different from those within the classical bioethical framework. The challenge is to find new ways to deal with regulations in order to facilitate research without frustrating personal rights. Informed Consent has been the center of this wide debate. We propose a model for rethinking consent in an open-time/open-goal framework suitable to genomics research. Consensus becomes more than a single legal step and goes more in the direction of a participated governance mechanism, a circular open process of communication which the IC sheet signature is just one instance of. This approach provides a governance framework based on different levels of consensus and participation that already contains mechanisms to resolve conflicts between different instances and to protect both the interest of research and the rights of participants.
{"title":"Consenting in Population Genomics as an Open Communication Process","authors":"D. Mascalzoni, A. Hicks, P. Pramstaller","doi":"10.2202/1941-6008.1085","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1085","url":null,"abstract":"New advances in genomics changed the research landscape significantly in the last few years. The power and significance of already existing tissue collections is enhanced by their growing size, and all over the world national projects aim to connect with each other at the international level, calling for integrated and common regulations in the transnational research field. The post genomics era faces problems that are partially different from those within the classical bioethical framework. The challenge is to find new ways to deal with regulations in order to facilitate research without frustrating personal rights. Informed Consent has been the center of this wide debate. We propose a model for rethinking consent in an open-time/open-goal framework suitable to genomics research. Consensus becomes more than a single legal step and goes more in the direction of a participated governance mechanism, a circular open process of communication which the IC sheet signature is just one instance of. This approach provides a governance framework based on different levels of consensus and participation that already contains mechanisms to resolve conflicts between different instances and to protect both the interest of research and the rights of participants.","PeriodicalId":88318,"journal":{"name":"Studies in ethics, law, and technology","volume":"119 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2202/1941-6008.1085","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68798116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of The Medicalization of Cyberspace","authors":"Kristi Scott","doi":"10.2202/1941-6008.1061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1061","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":88318,"journal":{"name":"Studies in ethics, law, and technology","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2202/1941-6008.1061","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68797548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sandel's book argues against genetic enhancement as an illegitimate expression of a drive to human mastery and a rejection of the proper appreciation of the gift of life. His view combines bad theology with bad virtue ethics, and exemplifies the problem of status quo bias in ethics.
{"title":"Review of The Case against Perfection","authors":"Keith Abney","doi":"10.2202/1941-6008.1062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1941-6008.1062","url":null,"abstract":"Sandel's book argues against genetic enhancement as an illegitimate expression of a drive to human mastery and a rejection of the proper appreciation of the gift of life. His view combines bad theology with bad virtue ethics, and exemplifies the problem of status quo bias in ethics.","PeriodicalId":88318,"journal":{"name":"Studies in ethics, law, and technology","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2202/1941-6008.1062","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68797626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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