Elaborating the List of Nanotech-related Ethical Issues

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to elaborate and expand a list of ethical issues of (mainly medical) applications of nanotechnologies, focusing on the current situation in Japan. Nano-ethics needs to be designed to comprehensively cover ethical issues (irrespective of their uniqueness) arising in the field of nanotechnologies and provide a platform to facilitate cooperation and mutual access among researchers of related ethical issues. One of the prima-facie goals of nano-ethics is to enumerate and elaborate the ethical implications of nanotechnologies so that they can be discussed and addressed effectively as global issues. The definition of nanotechnologies should be inclusive in elaborating the list of nano-ethics. Recognizing the plurality of nanotechnological applications and the resulting composite/multiple nature of nano-ethics, the partiality in inquiry into the ethical issues of nanotechnologies in present-day Japan indicates the necessity for nano-ethics to function as a platform of ethics researches on related technologies.