Balancing Innovation and Responsibility: Ethical, Legal and Social Considerations in Nanomedicine

Nanotechnology has helped enhance innovations in medicine by improving the quality of materials in recent decades. To address the multi-dimensional ethical challenges cropping up in the sunrise area of Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine, we urgently require inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspectives from Philosophy, Ethics, Sociology, Law and Psychology. It mandates collaborative efforts from academicians, medicine and para-medicine fraternities, policymakers, industry leaders, media professionals and society. As innovation continues to push boundaries and transform various aspects of our lives, we need to engage in open and unbiased dialogues, to set stringent ethical standards with respect to animal and human subjects as well as the environment and to promote responsible along with inclusive innovation. In this chapter, we discuss the ethical, legal, and social issues that have evolved and are in practice for nanomedicine.