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Derek Hamilton

5/10/13

Writing 10

John Haner

Nanotechnology in Medicine:

Ethical Dilemmas & Societal Integration

For millennia, mankind has been searching for the “elixir of life” so to speak; that is, a

way to exceed natural human lifespan. The first of many theories yielding eternal life was that

of alchemy. From as early as 220 B.C., countless leaders have attempted to manipulate the

elements for a potion of eternal youth. China’s first emperor, Shi Huangdi, had many personal

alchemists who tried for years to accomplish this, and sampled countless concoctions until one

finally killed him with mercury poisoning. From trials in alchemy, to quests for fountains of

youth, many have obsessed over this quest and died in vain. Here we are centuries later, finally

on the verge of realizing the timeless human goal of prolonged life. The technology that will

finally bring the human race to that goal is nanotechnology (in cooperation with genetics).

Although complex nanotechnology is still in its developmental stages, the implications of its

integration into microbiology and immunology are already tremendous. With the current pace

of technological growth, it is expected to have nearly limitless nanotechnological possibilities by

the end of the century. Of this vast range of possibilities, the ones discussed will range from

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microbiotic disease treatment, nanoblood cells, immunological supplements, and significantly

improved longevity.

The Rise of Nanotechnology in Medicine

In recent years, stem cell research was perhaps the cornerstone of modern biological

science and received huge publicity for its possibilities. It was an amazing feat that scientists

could essentially recreate human body parts from microbial cells. They achieved this by working

with what was considered the smallest possible level of biology to work with. However,

nanotechnology has brought a whole new perspective to microbiology. Nanotechnology has

become so successful, that it is almost possible to engineer nanobots the size of blood cells.

This fact alone makes way for nearly inconceivable ways to utilize nanotechnology in perfecting

the human species. Of all the ways people die, most of them are biologically responsible, for a

fairly small percentage of deaths are accident or violently related. Some common reasons for

death include heart attacks, failure of some vital organ or function, and hereditary risks such as

diabetes or cancer. All of these problems can be potentially neutralized with applications of

nanotechnology. With America rapidly approaching an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, the rate

of high blood pressure and high cholesterol are at insanely high rates never seen before in

history. Untreated, this leaves a decent percentage of the population at a fair risk of coronary

related complications. Imagine if any one of these at-risk individuals could take a simple

injection of nanobots into the bloodstream, which target cholesterol built up inside the arteries,

and dismantle them into manageable components the body can process. This exact same

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ideology can be applied to cancer cells, simple bacterial life, or even fat cells. Any illness can be

cured; any disease can be destroyed; any imperfection can be relinquished.

What Does This Mean For Mankind?

We humans can essentially engineer ourselves to perfection. We can eliminate nearly

every biological issue ensuing premature death. Imagine a world without biological

imperfection; a world where an appointment with a doctor can remedy any and all illnesses,

diseases, and imperfections in minutes. This could be anyone’s world, for a price. Such

revolutionary impending treatments beg the question as old as history; how do we regulate it?

Does an individual’s wealth affect his or her ability to take advantage of this immunological

revolution? Even in modern day, many families cannot afford the health insurance needed to

ensure long healthy lives, while the wealthy have access to nearly limitless treatments, doctors,

and medication. The rift between the wealthy and the impoverished is already expansive in

terms of health care, and improvements of health technology will only serve to widen the rift.

Newly emerged procedures will surely fetch a pretty penny, and in this vision of the future,

more wealthy individuals will be able to afford the luxury of engineering their bodies to

perfection, while the less fortunate will not. This obviously raises a huge ethical dilemma. Why

should one’s economic standing affect one’s ability to simply live a healthy life? This division of

the population will also have several other social impacts, such as job discrimination, social

discrimination, and general segregation between the immunologically modified, and the

average human. Regardless of social ethics in question, this nanotechnological breakthrough

will nevertheless revolutionize the way humans live their lives. In a world where people attain

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the realization that their bodies can be re-perfected at any moment, all sense of consequence is

instantly mitigated. People may disregard their diet entirely, knowing nanobots can essentially

“destroy” any extra weight they gain. People may intentionally drink much more irresponsibly

than they should, knowing nanobots can help the liver detoxify the blood. People may be

significantly more likely to engage in risky behaviors knowing any disease or virus conceived can

be destroyed by nanobots. In light of similar advancements, the sense of “reward” for proper

lifestyle choices has disappeared entirely. People will lead more reckless lives, not cognisant of

what would be the consequences had access to such treatments be taken away. Social and

moral ethics will unquestionably play a role in the “nanobiotech” revolution, but what will the

ethical dilemmas be?

The Future “Standard” of Health: For Better, or Worse?

In recent years, treatments utilizing nanoparticles have been developed, implemented,

and practiced somewhat commonly at an alarmingly high success rate. One specific treatment

involves putting nanomaterials inside the body of a cancer patient, designed to contact and

attach to cancer cells in the bloodstream. A couple different factors contribute to the success of

this treatment. Firstly, the nanomaterial is designed specifically to only attach to the deadly

cancer cells rather than living. Secondly, nanomaterials are made just large enough to be

unable to permeate the blood-brain barrier, keeping the patient safe from brain injury. Once

enough of the material has accumulated at the site, the patient is subjected a magnetic field in

such a manner that the nanomaterials oscillate at an incredible rate, physically breaking apart

the cancer cells through vibrations. This is a very painless, elegant solution to most cancers. As

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Michio Kaku states, “The beauty of this is that it does not require complicated and dangerous

methods, which might have serious side effects” (210). This is just one specific example, and

treatments such as this will eventually be available for many aspects of general health upkeep,

such as nanobots created to destroy cholesterol, disassemble fat deposits, and even repair

specific living cells. With such an arsenal of health promoting treatments, humans can become

nearly indestructible from deteriorating health ailments creating a utopia of prolonged

consequence-free lives. Such therapies sound like they have an undeniable positive impact on

the world, but these advancements have much more controversiality than meets the eye. There

are many moral and ethical qualms to be had in multiple aspects of such procedures.

Time: The Currency of the Future

As frightening as it is, we almost live in a world where money literally buys life. With

ample wealth, one can purchase nanotechnological supplements for improve immune system

functioning, general cardiovascular health, live cell repair, abnormality prevention, and nearly

anything that comes to mind. A frightening component of engineering on the nanometric level

is that nearly anything is possible biologically. In current times, the wealthier can already afford

more experimental and expensive procedures that may not exactly be accessible to the less

fortunate; however, the scale of this imbalance in treatment accessibility will be significantly

magnified with the introduction of nano-supplements into the every-day setting. A less wealthy

man with a history of early heart problems may only live to be half as old as a wealthier

individual who can afford cholesterol inhibiting nano-supplements. The reality is that this

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explicit chasm between the rich and poor in terms of standard of living will always be skewed

and unjust, but that is only the nature of wealth: the access to more possibilities.

Perfect Health: the New Economic Crevasse

Medicine has always been a touchy ethical topic in terms of the relationship between

affordability and availability. The most revolutionary treatments and procedures have been

unintentionally catered towards the wealthier class simply through cost of production in

conjunction with supply and demand. In an unfortunate quirk of reality, an economic crevasse

has separated the wealthy from the less fortunate in terms of the availability of health

remedying and disease diagnosing/treating technologies. As cited in the Encyclopedia of

Healthcare Information Systems, “Nanorobotics will be able to diagnose, as well as the cure, the

diseases quickly, efficiently, and effectively. Moreover, accurate and effective diagnosis of

incurable diseases like cancer and HIV/AIDS at early stages will turn out to be a great relief for

the coming generation from these deadly diseases.” Currently, this separation of opportunity

generally does not have a very significant effect on long-term health, but will this still be the

case when nanotechnology will be able to destroy diseases, rectify any irregularities, and

ultimately extend human longevity by an alarming factor? And even more importantly, how will

mankind unite to accommodate arising ethical concerns as well as address and regulate the

impact of the technology on society and economy? My stance is in congruence with this issue.

It is not fair that one’s relative success in the world dictates his or her accessibility to something

like living. This notion is ridiculous and although it would near next to impossible to offer this

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nature of technology to be free, measures can be taken to at least make it reasonably

affordable.

Can we prevent it?

Several key components of addressing of this ethical dilemma include funding, government

and self-regulation, and socio-economic reform. Funding is a very complicated issue when it

comes to highly controversial technologies. The most universally known example is the

advancement of stem cell research. Government funding for stem cell research is an issue that

has been heavily debated and severely reformed countless times since it was pioneered, and

thus currently the funding for stem cell research lies entirely in the private investment sector.

What many people do not immediately realize, is that increased funding for technology allows

for opportunity to discover ways to more efficiently create and produce said technologies,

decreasing production costs, ultimately allowing for greater production quantities as well as

making the technologies more affordable. This specifically is a very important component to

this ethical dilemma, as a significant increase in availability and affordability would cause the

“unfairness” argument to begin to falter for the most part, and in turn decrease the public

opposition. Regulation would be one of the most unique factors to consider. If the life-

prolonging effects of any nano-technological advancement were significant enough to the point

where the wealthy and impoverished are drastically estranged, the government may be forced

to step in. The government implemented a section-8 housing program in which it helps low-

income families afford decent houses to shorten the economic gap between the homeless and

wealthy. In a similar way, the government may at one point implement programs to assist or

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compensate illegible low income-families to afford life- extending technologies to avoid

contributing to an increasing separation of economic classes. Although utilizing technology to

artificially improve longevity and body functionality is a concept unfamiliar and uncomfortable

to most, but with proper integration into society, it could one day be just as routine as a

vaccination.

Nanomaterials: The Omnipotent Pollutant of the Future

As science has matured over the years, the human race has started to realize its role in

several key pollutants around the world and their lasting impact on the environment on a

global scale. The “big” pollutant of the generation changes from time to time, from lithium to

plastic to carbon dioxide, the debate is always changing. However, one of the single biggest

concerns for pollutants in the world of the future is the problem of nanopollution. Now,

nanopollution can mean a couple different things depend on what is being dealt with. The less

concerned type is environmental pollution. Typically, nanoparticles’ effect on the environment

is negligible compared to other polluting concerns at hand. The biggest concern of

nanopollution is strictly biological. Nanomaterials have a largely uninvestigated impact on

various ecosystems; although the little research that has been done strongly suggests the most

commonly used nanomaterials today have significant health risks, both to people as well as all

other organisms. The problems of this aspect of nanopollution lie in the lack of foresight of

nanoparticles in a larger system. Although nanomaterials are not inherently dangerous, many

corporation researches are not cognisant to their interaction with other components of a large

system of reactions. The most commonly known and investigated nanomaterial is Titanium

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Dioxide, (TiO2) currently the most popular nanoparticle in macro-scale manufacturing. Titanium

dioxide is the most common agent in several of the biggest brand names of cosmetics, but is

now showing to be carcinogenic through extensive research. A recent article published by the

American Association of Cancer Research has stated, “Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are

manufactured worldwide in large quantities for use in a wide range of applications including

pigment and cosmetic manufacturing. Although TiO2 is chemically inert, TiO2 nanoparticles can

cause negative health effects, such as respiratory tract cancer…” (8784.) This is a frightening

vision into what macro-environmental pollution problems can possible arise when countless

nanoparticles are carelessly washed into water supplies and introduced into the environment.

Consequences of Nano-pollution

The second huge ethical concern in regards to the increasingly popular integration of

nanotechnology into society is the matter of nano-pollution and nano-waste. Pollution has

been perhaps the largest environmental concern for any type of advancements since the

concept of pollution was established. But now we are talking about a very unique type of

pollution that is very complicated to hypothetically consider, for the entirety of its effects are

largely enigmatic. The little research that has been conducted however, has almost invariably

unveiled definite causation between specific nanoparticles and various cancers in conceivably

any living organisms that are overexposed to the nanomaterials. A recent article published by

the American Association of Cancer Research has stated, “Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles

are manufactured worldwide in large quantities for use in a wide range of applications including

pigment and cosmetic manufacturing. Although TiO2 is chemically inert, TiO2 nanoparticles can

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cause negative health effects, such as respiratory tract cancer…” (8784). A slightly differing

concern is the chemical reaction between nanoparticles and specific chemical compositions in

the environment itself, disregarding living organisms. One such concern is the effect of

nanoparticles on the growth or oppression of algal blooms and the corresponding response of

the surrounding environment. The relieving news is that with proper education, regulation, and

nano-filtration technologies, nanopollution can be mitigated to a very manageable,

unthreatening level.

Regulating the Problem

Perhaps the biggest influence on nano-pollution control will be law-enforced

regulations. Fortunately, many scientists and policy-makers are already aware of the necessary

changes at hand. As indicated in the Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability: The Law and

Politics of Sustainability, “In considering the commercial introduction of manufactured

nanomaterials to achieve potential environmental benefits, countries should also give due

consideration to potential health hazards or the environmental implications of the use of

nanomaterials during their whole lifecycle. This includes the potential effects of production of

the nanoscale materials, as well as the disposition of nanomaterials that may, for example,

require new programs of recyclers or cause new concerns for disposal.” Hypothetically, self-

regulation would be a great start and a strong component of regulating nano-pollution globally,

but this would hardly be the case. The reality of the situation is that without judicial and

economic repercussions for neglecting nano-pollution regulation, there would be no progress in

the preventing of polluting the planet and negatively impacting its various ecosystems. Just as

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there are requirements that corporations must meet in terms of general pollution, safety

regulations, and production guidelines, standards must be set for the complete and effective

filtering of nanoparticles within all waste materials a corporation disposes of. A second

promising proponent of dealing with this ethical dilemma is the effectiveness of funding in

driving research towards both safer nano-material compositions and more efficient filtering

technologies. With proper funding, the general population’s unrest in the ethics of nano-

pollution can be strongly mitigated, as technology becomes more adept in increasingly safe and

efficient filtration. Technology and education are of trivial concern to the proposal of resolving

ethical concerns. The nano-filtration technologies that current exist are already at a level that

would be sufficient if implemented more effectively, and educating corporations and the

population of the environmental hazards and repercussions of general pollution has been

advocated for years, with limited success. The key proponents to successful neutralization of

the environmental threats of pollution will lie nearly entirely in regulation and related funding,

and these are the steps that are the most vital in our cause to prevent nano-pollution.

Ethics as a Whole

These huge ethical concerns are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what we

can expect from the advancement of nanotechnology and its gradual integration into our

everyday lives. Although the potential is incredible, the ethical concerns will be a significant

factor in slowing the progress of research done to advance such technologies. The expected, as

well as unexpected consequences are enough for many to heed caution as they progress

aimlessly into this field of research. Almost as frightening as the foreseen issues ahead,

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unexpected consequences are always a hard thing to gauge, but they can end up being some of

the most significant. It is an inevitability that the ethical and moral concerns encompassing the

advancement of nanotechnology are still very controversial and will continue to play a

significant role in its development as it evolves into the future.

The Future of Medicine: Successful Integration in Society

Although the ones discussed are of an ethical nature, there are always numerous

physical dangers and risks in controversial technology as well. Such concerns will be accidental

self-harm liability as well as long term deterioration of the immune system as humans grow

more and more dependent on nanotech-supplements. Although concerning, the ethical issues

are quite a bit more relevant on a societal scale and will be far more vital problems to address.

As our scientific abilities grow, we will see exactly what comes of various technologies and how

they will affect society. Just as our technological limits are what currently control growth of

experimental capabilities, society’s moral stigmas and ethical qualms will be the limiting agent

of technological growth in the future. There is no question that the incorporation of

nanotechnology into molecular biology and immunology will be complicated, but how will

mankind as a species unite to successfully integrate these innovations into society? Fortunately,

the first precautionary measures are already being devised and heavily considered. Although

the establishment of preemptive infrastructure may be time consuming & complicated, proper

utilization of regulation, education, funding, and technology growth can mitigate public

opposition and effectively address and accommodate the ethical concerns held worldwide.

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Works Cited

"Nanorobotics: Applications in Bionanotechnology." Encyclopedia of Healthcare Information

Systems. Hershey: IGI Global, 2008. Credo Reference. Web. 07 May 2013.

"Chemicals Legislation and Policy." Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability: The Law and

Politics of Sustainability. Great Barrington: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2010. Credo

Reference. Web. 07 May 2013.

Kaku, Michio. Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives

by the Year 2100. New York: Doubleday, 2011. Print.

Ferrari, Mauro. "Nanotechnology-Enabled Medicine - Mauro Ferrari - Discovery

Medicine." Discovery Medicine. Ohio State University, 25 July 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

Advances in Anti-Aging Medicine, Vol. I, edited by Dr. Ronald M. Klatz, Liebert press, 1996,

pages 277-286.

Owl.english.purdue.edu. "Welcome to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)." 2006.

Web. 10 Apr 2013. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Ali Mansoor, G. et al. Nanotechnology in cancer prevention, detection and treatment: bright

future lies ahead. Chicago: University of Illinois, 2007. 226-256.

Trouiller, Benedicte et al. Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles Induce DNA Damage and Genetic

Instability. American Association for Cancer Research, 2009. 8783-8790.