Who will speak for moral considerations in nanotechnology?

Filed in archive Society & Ethics on January 21, 2006

"Science should not be hampered by moral considerations."
- James Wyngaarden, former director of the National Institutes of Health

"Those working in any field are least likely to think about the conceptual presuppositions and ethical concerns occasioned by the area. Such individuals are so intent on what they do, on working in the area in question, that they rarely can afford the luxury and distancing required to generate thinking about that area."
- Bernard E., Rollin, " The Frankenstein Syndrome: Ethical and Social Issues in the Genetic Engineering of Animals " . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

If Wyngaarden and Rollin are correct and scientists cannot be relied on to think about the moral and ethical concerns implicit in their work, who can? I believe that designers may play an increasingly significant role in studying the ethical implications of nanotechnology for two reasons. First, nanotechnology is " the design, production and application of structures, devices and systems by controlling the shape and size at the nanometer scale. " In other words, it is a matter of design, and designers should play a role in its development. Second, most designers are adept at considering the social and environmental consequences of their work because it is social and environmental forces that are the starting point for the design process. An architect, for example, begins the design process by looking at the site and interviewing the user. To not think about the moral and ethical concerns implicit in the design would be a failure to live up to the basic responsibilities of the profession.

Because nanotechnologists cannot be expected to anticipate all the consequences of their designs as those designs interact with their users and their environment, it may fall to designers to take up this role; if they do not, who will?