Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
On the Relationship between Social Ethics and Nanotechnology
Janne Nikkinen, Postdoctoral Researcher
Nanoethics Asia 2009, Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok, Thailand
26.8.2009
Department of Systematic Theology
26.08.2009 2
Outline
Context of discussion: Technology assessment (TA)
Interests of NT actors
Ideological notions in the NT debate
Some concluding remarks
26.08.2009 3
Background
Postdoctoral research project “Global nanoethics – local
applications” from 2008 onwards
Comparison of ideological factors in the key documents of
nanotechnology in the U.S., EU and Asia (Thailand?)
Three case studies with examples from specific NBIC-
technologies
26.08.2009 4
Introduction
Nanoethics – something special (Schummer 2006)? ”[…] development, study, practice, and enforcement of a set
of culturally accepted beliefs, mores, guidelines, standards,
regulations, and even laws for governing rapidly advancing
nanotechnologies across multiple economic sectors”
Nanoethics as a part of a whole (Baumgartner 2008): ”[…] thorough and comprehensive investigation of the ethical
aspects of nanotechnology obviously requires the integration
of different perspectives such as social ethics…but also
perspectives not explicitly ethical at first glance”
26.08.2009 5
TA process in NT: Technology itself
Reasons for assessment
Symbolic value
Normative characteristics
Desirability of its effects
Unintended consequences
Alternatives
(adapted from Jose M. Cozar-Escalante, unpublished, cf. Lehoux & William-Jones 2007)
26.08.2009 6
TA: Stakeholders
Direct and indirect beneficiaries vs. potential victims
Financial and other interests
Professional prestige
Researcher’s interests
Power relations among stakeholders
(adapted from Jose M. Cozar-Escalante, unpublished, cf. Lehoux & William-Jones 2007)
26.08.2009 7
TA in NT: Assessment methods
Choice of end points
Selection of studies
Representativeness of users
Level of generalization and research ethics
TA’s producers’s interests
Moral consequences of the TA
(adapted from Jose M. Cozar-Escalante, unpublished, cf. Lehoux & William-Jones 2007)
26.08.2009 8
Decision-making (resource implications related to nanotechnology’s dissemination)
Distribution and access to services and products
developed by means of NT
Moral obligation to implement a technology
Social justice, fairness, equity, legitimacy, entitlement
Impact on other parts of society, reaction of public and
public accountability
(adapted from Jose M. Cozar-Escalante, unpublished, cf. Lehoux & William-Jones 2007)
26.08.2009 9
TA in NT: Broader societal issues
Impact on human integrity and dignity
Challenge with social values and arrangements
Conflict with convictions Religious
Social
Cultural
Contradiction with legal arrangements
(adapted from Jose M. Cozar-Escalante, unpublished, cf. Lehoux & William-Jones 2007)
26.08.2009 10
Conflict of interest in environmental technology: Pesticide studies
Independent Science Advisory Board of the U.S.
Environment Protection Agency (EPA) studied health and
safety research provided by American pesticide
producers
All studies conducted by humans were scientifically
”invalid”
Small sample sizes, from 7 to 50 subjects (when at least
2500 from each and every group would have been
needed)
(Schreder-Frechette 2007)
26.08.2009 11
Pesticide studies and their lesson to NT
According to Kerstin Schreder-Frechette (2007), the
pesticide studies were ”[…] predetermined to generate false-negative conclusions,
false conclusions that the pesticides were not harmful […]
”Because virtually all nanotechnology research is done by
those who expect to profit from it, mostly chemical
companies, there are few ground for believing that this
research, done with a clear conflict of interest, is likely to
produce results that are any more reliable than the pesticide
studies evaluated by the EPA Science Advisory Board [...]”
26.08.2009 12
Ideological content in NT debate
In NT debate, there are a number of assumptions of
social needs, goals and values that are not well-grounded
Claims that are based on actual research results or other
scientific data
Quasi-ideological claims that while may be true, so far
unproven
Purely ideological beliefs with unclear evidential support
26.08.2009 13
Certain examples (Schummer 2008)
Science policy goals as unquestionable facts
Higher necessity to conduct research (naturally
determined)
Opportunity to present NT goals as societal needs
NT as next ”industrial revolution”
26.08.2009 14
Cf. the biotechnology revolution
Pharmaceutical innovation process: between 1978 and
1998 substantial increase in bioscience publications
Seven-fold increase in patenting (USPTO classes 424
and 514, therapeutically active compounds) 1978-1998
Ten-fold increase in R&D spending 1978-1998
(Nightingale and Martin 2004)
26.08.2009 15
Results of Nightingale and Martin
Same number of drugs approved by the FDA in 2002 as
in 1982 (lag of 4-8 years between investments/patents)
During the period of Jan 1986 – Apr 2004 only 16
biopharmaceuticals were better than “minimal
improvements,” compared to pre-existing treatments
At least three were already characterized in 1980 (biotech
research has only improved the production techniques)
(Nightingale and Martin 2004)
26.08.2009 16
Impact on scientific goals
The US National Cancer Institute’s goal is to “eliminate
suffering and death from cancer by 2015”
The role of technological developments?
The role of cultural factors and personal choices?
26.08.2009 17
Possible lessons for the nanotechnology
In pharmaceutical innovation process expectations were
“wildly optimistic and overestimate the speed and extent
of the impact of biotechnology”
At first, rapid and localized quantitative improvements in
productivity that mislead the interpretations of the
situation
Vested interests of
- management consultants
- financial analysts
- venture capitalists
(Nightingale and Martin 2004)
26.08.2009 18
National Nanotechnology Initiative in the U.S. and nano-, bio-, information and cogno (NBIC)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored report
stated that human enhancement is a greater societal
need, rather than goals of specific interest groups
Among others, claim that human has become the
weakest link, both physically and cognitively, in modern
warfare
NBIC-projects with intention to Human experiments on brain-machine implants
Genetic-/biochemical engineering of humans
Enhancing human capacities for the purposes of warfare
(Roco & Bainbridge 2002, as in Schummer 2008)
26.08.2009 19
Ideological notions in the NBIC-report (2002)
According to Joachim Schummer, the implicit aim is to
create transhumanist world or harmonous cyber-network
society (by means of the U.S. taxpayer funding)
NBIC as a tool for transhumanism (Schummer 2008): ”[…] the NBIC-report includes most of the central features of
human enhancement that transhumanists consider as steps
towards their salvation…Under the heading of
nanotechnology, and by the help of the military and
transhumanists, these ideas have now become part of
official science policy agenda in the US.”
(Schummer 2008)
26.08.2009 20
Making the normative stances explicit
The normative dimension of science policy reports and
publications is always present, but not always clear
There is a need for (Schummer 2009) Philosophical analysis of science policy concepts and reports
Empirical scrutinity of science policy claims about NT and
other converging technologies
Critical assessment of technological visions and policies
Sociological analysis of the role and dynamics of NT-debate
26.08.2009 21
Some concluding remarks
It seems that in the NT debate several viewpoints and
assumptions are widespread and promoted, but without
clear evidentiary support or public acceptance
Some of these notions originated already decades ago in
studies that relied on outdated data or questionable
research paradigms (e.g. Drexler 1986)
The problematic ideological contents may have also been
moving from one publication to another, thereby affecting
goals and aims of science policy in various countries
