Nanotechnology and Ethical Governance in the European Union and China: Towards a Global Approach for Science and Technology

235 Pages·2015·1.813 MB·English

by  Sally Dalton-Brown

Sally Dalton-Brown
Nanotechnology
and Ethical
Governance in the
European Union and
China
Towards a Global Approach for Science
and Technology
Nanotechnology and Ethical Governance
in the European Union and China

Sally Dalton-Brown
Nanotechnology and Ethical
Governance in the European
Union and China
Towards a Global Approach for Science
and Technology
Sally Dalton-Brown
Trinity College
University of Melbourne
Melbourne , Australia
ISBN 978-3-319-18232-2 ISBN 978-3-319-18233-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-18233-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015938101
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
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Acknowledgments
This book has been partly written in the UK and partly in Australia (as well as on a
few long plane journeys in between). I owe many people my thanks in both places
and some beyond.
First of all I would like to thank the incomparable Empress Doris for her calm
perspicacity and endless patience and for her great friendship. Thanks also to Miltos
Ladikas for access to GEST reports, advice on pTA, and particularly for including
me on his GEST trip to Beijing. I am grateful also to Ma Ying from CASTED for
sending me various nanoarticles, and arranging a nanotechnology panel in Beijing,
and to Camilo Fautz at ITAS (KIT) for sending me some useful articles on EU regu-
lation. Thanks to Roger Chenells and Kate Chatfi eld, study buddies extraordinaire,
and to Tim Thornton.
I also thank the University of Central Lancashire for providing me with the fund-
ing that made this possible and to Cathy Lennon for helping me with my many
bureaucratic incompetencies, amongst other things.
And last but not least, thanks to you-know-who for the support, including endless
cups of tea; by my reckoning this project took nearly a thousand. I say nothing of
any other beverages that may have been harmed during the making of this book.
v

Contents
1 Introductory Context .............................................................................. 1
1.1 New Concerns? ................................................................................ 3
1.2 Global Cooperation? ........................................................................ 4
1.3 Increased Public Participation ......................................................... 5
References ................................................................................................. 7
2 What Is Nanotechnology, and What Should
We Be Worried About? ........................................................................... 11
2.1 Products for the Public ..................................................................... 15
2.2 Approaching Nanoethics ................................................................. 17
2.2.1 Hypothetical Nanoethics? Science Fiction
and Nanotechnology ............................................................ 19
2.2.2 Nanoethics Debates in the EU and in China ....................... 29
2.3 Debates on Nanoethics – EU ........................................................... 31
2.4 Debates on Nanoethics: China ......................................................... 33
References ................................................................................................. 36
3 Bioethics as an Approach to Nanoethics in China
and the EU ............................................................................................... 43
3.1 The GM Controversy ....................................................................... 43
3.2 Back to the Bioethics Debate ........................................................... 46
3.2.1 Social Values and Bioethics: Informing the Nanodebate
in the EU .............................................................................. 47
3.2.2 Social Values and Bioethics: Informing the Nanodebate
in China ............................................................................... 53
3.2.3 Global Bioethics/Global Nanoethics? ................................. 62
3.3 Which V alues for a Global Bioethics? Or Should
We Consider Processes? .................................................................. 63
References ................................................................................................. 66
vii
viii Contents
4 Nanoregulation ........................................................................................ 73
4.1 What Are the Risks, and What Regulatory Approaches
Might We Take? ............................................................................... 74
4.1.1 Risks .................................................................................... 74
4.1.2 Four Types of Regulatory Approaches ................................ 77
4.2 Nanoregulation in the EU ................................................................ 79
4.2.1 EU Nanotechnology Advisory Groups: EGE,
HLEG, ETAG and EGAIS .................................................... 80
4.2.2 EU Priorities in Nanogovernance ........................................ 81
4.2.3 EU Achievements in Nanoregulation: EU-CoC
and R EACH ......................................................................... 82
4.3 Nanoregulation in China .................................................................. 85
4.4 Global Nanopolicy ........................................................................... 88
4.4.1 The OECD (WPM and WPMN).......................................... 93
References ................................................................................................. 96
5 pTA (Participatory Technology Assessment), Habermas’s
Dialogue/Discourse Ethics and Nanofora ............................................. 103
5.1 Agency as a Global Idea? ................................................................ 104
5.2 Technology Assessment (TA) and Participatory
Technology Assessment (pTA) ........................................................ 109
5.2.1 The Public Trust Issue ......................................................... 112
5.2.2 The ‘Legitimisation’ Effect of Public Participation ............ 112
5.2.3 New Forms of Governance? ................................................ 115
5.2.4 Educating Citizens and Policymakers ................................. 116
5.2.5 Self-Refl ection and Bridge-Building ................................... 117
5.3 pTA in Europe .................................................................................. 119
5.4 pTA in China .................................................................................... 122
5.5 How pTA Works (and Why Habermas?) ......................................... 124
5.5.1 The Logistics of a pTA Event .............................................. 125
5.5.2 Power and Pluralism ............................................................ 126
5.5.3 Education? ........................................................................... 127
5.5.4 Other Logistical Issues: Size, Timeline
and Methodology ................................................................. 129
References ................................................................................................. 133
6 The Virtuous Discourse Agent ............................................................... 139
6.1 The Species Ethic as Universal? ...................................................... 141
6.2 Reason as a Universal Virtue?.......................................................... 143
6.2.1 Ubuntu ................................................................................. 153
6.3 Emancipatory Knowledge ................................................................ 154
6.4 Dialectical Agency ........................................................................... 156
6.4.1 Inclusive Dialecticism and Dialogue ................................... 157
6.5 Autonomy as a (Non)Universal Virtue? ........................................... 158
Contents ix
6.6 Intersubjectivity ............................................................................... 164
6.7 Global or Universal Virtues ............................................................. 166
References ................................................................................................. 169
7 Universalism Versus Relativism ............................................................. 175
7.1 Problems with Universalism and Relativism ................................... 176
7.2 Communitarianism and Cosmopolitanism ...................................... 179
7.2.1 Identity ................................................................................ 182
7.3 Habermas’s Universalisation Principle ............................................ 183
7.3.1 Deriving the Universal ......................................................... 185
7.3.2 Identity Formation and Nanoethics ..................................... 201
References ................................................................................................. 205
8 Conclusion: Discourse Ethics and the Dialectics
of East-West Intersubjectivity................................................................ 211
References ................................................................................................. 216
Appendix: African Nanoethics ....................................................................... 219
References ................................................................................................. 226