Ethical Issues in Nanomedicine Research: An Overview and Principles

Nanotechnology has been progressing during the past decade. Nanomedicine research, which seeks to promote human health through the development of nanodrugs and nanoscale therapeutic methods, has also received increasing attention. Although nanotechnology can lead to major advancements in medicine, it cannot be appropriately applied to protect human dignity and welfare if its social and ethical consequences are neglected. In fact, as nanomedicine deals directly with human health, its related ethical issues should be considered with great caution. Therefore, the present study attempted to identify the most important nanomedicine-related ethical issues in health and bioresearch. In a comprehensive review, the relevant literature were extracted from two major databases (pubmed and web of science) and other resources such as books and proceedings. The existing approaches to ethics in nanomedicine and considered ethical principles were then analyzed and the most important ethical issues in this field were identified and summarized. According to the reviewed articles, autonomy, privacy protection, nonmaleficence, and controlling human capabilities are the most important ethical issues involved in nanomedicine research. These principles should hence be carefully regarded in nanomedicine research.