A closer look at nanomedicine

In our May 7 spotlight “The potential and the pitfalls of nanomedicine” we took a general look at the potential implications of nanomedicine and addressed some ethical issues that arise as the technology develops. In part two of this article we now take a closer look at emerging nanomedical techniques such as nanosurgery, tissue engineering, nanoparticle-enabled diagnostics, and targeted drug delivery. Again, the ethical issues inherent in these emerging medical technologies need to be considered. There are established principals for ethical assessment of existing, conventional, medical technologies and a new research article examines if and how these principals can be extended to nanomedicine.

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"We show that even though ethical problems in nanomedicine may be more complex than ethical problems in medicine and biotechnology in general, for example the toxicity of nanoparticles resulting from their nanoscale size, fundamentally the same general ethical principles are at stake, such as respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice" Mette Ebbesen and Dr. Thomas G. Jensen explain in their recent article "Nanomedicine: Techniques, Potentials, and Ethical Implications".