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Ethical issues in nanomedicine: Tempest in a teapot?

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Abstract

Nanomedicine offers remarkable options for new therapeutic avenues. As methods in nanomedicine advance, ethical questions conjunctly arise. Nanomedicine is an exceptional niche in several aspects as it reflects risks and uncertainties not encountered in other areas of medical research or practice. Nanomedicine partially overlaps, partially interlocks and partially exceeds other medical disciplines. Some interpreters agree that advances in nanotechnology may pose varied ethical challenges, whilst others argue that these challenges are not new and that nanotechnology basically echoes recurrent bioethical dilemmas. The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the ethical issues related to nanomedicine and to reflect on the question whether nanomedicine generates ethical challenges of new and unique nature. Such a determination should have implications on regulatory processes and professional conducts and protocols in the future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chief Scientists Office, Ministry of Health, 39 Yirmiyahu St., Jerusalem, Israel

    Irit Allon & Ahmi Ben-Yehudah

  2. Department of Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Irit Allon

  3. Head of Occupational Medicine Services, Ministry of Health, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Raz Dekel

  4. Centre for Medical Ethics Faculty, Medicine University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Jan-Helge Solbakk

  5. WG Ethics at the European Technology Platform for Nanomedicine, Münster, Germany

    Klaus-Michael Weltring

  6. University of Virginia School of Law, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Gil Siegal

  7. Gertner Institute of Public Policy, Ministry of Health, Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel

    Gil Siegal

  8. Center for Health Law, Bioethics and Health Policy, Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel

    Gil Siegal

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  1. Irit Allon
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  2. Ahmi Ben-Yehudah
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  4. Jan-Helge Solbakk
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  5. Klaus-Michael Weltring
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  6. Gil Siegal
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Correspondence to Irit Allon.

Additional information

This article originated from a workshop on Unique Ethical Issues in Nanomedicine, organized by EuroNanoMed2, 3rd December 2014, Oslo, Norway. EuroNanoMed 2 is a non-profit organization aimed at fostering transnational nanomedical research (http://www.euronanomed.net/).

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Allon, I., Ben-Yehudah, A., Dekel, R. et al. Ethical issues in nanomedicine: Tempest in a teapot?. Med Health Care and Philos 20, 3–11 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-016-9720-7

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