Are (official) ethical approaches to nanotechnology affected by cultural context and tradition? A comparative analysis: Europe-USA

Abstract

Lately, nanotechnology has become one of the main topics in the debates regarding what has been called the Next Industrial Revolution within what are known as emergent technologies. This paper contains a comparative analysis of the different philosophical groundings, arguments and principles invoked in the official ethical approaches proposed by each of two of the main Western communities. By official ethical approaches or official positions we mean the opinions officially expressed by the government institutions about how ethical considerations prompted by nanotechnologies should be tackled. The analysis is based, then, on the official points of view, expressed through two documents, namely two official releases issued by governmental offices or institutions in both communities, Europe and the United States of America, and considered by the authors as representative of the official opinions of the governmental institutions in each society.