Chapter 1

Nanotechnology and Water: Ethical and Regulatory Considerations

Jillian Gardner* and Ames Dhai

Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

*Corresponding author: Jillian.Gardner@wits.ac.za

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of what constitutes ethical and lawful conduct in the application of nanotechnology in the context of water in South Africa. It initially focuses on the ethical issues raised by the application of nanotechnology to water. Reasons are given for the significance of water-related nanotechnology and the benefits and risks of the technology are discussed. An outline of national and international nanotechnology regulatory documents and their application to water nanotechnology is presented along with a discussion of the complexities regarding the establishment of regulations and laws concerning nanoscience and nanotechnologies. The assistance of soft laws in the context of regulatory vacuums is highlighted. Differing perspectives of research involving people as research subjects in the context of nanotechnology and water are discussed.

Keywords: Ethics, regulation, nanotechnology, water

1.1 Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of what constitutes ethical and lawful conduct in the application of nanotechnology in the context of water in South Africa. The chapter initially focuses on the ethical issues raised by the application of nanotechnology to water. Reasons are offered for the significance of nanotechnology in the context of water and the benefits and risks of the technology are discussed. National and international nanotechnology regulatory documents and their application to water nanotechnology are outlined and the complexities regarding the establishment of regulations and laws related to nanoscience and nanotechnologies are described. The assistance of soft laws in the context of regulatory vacuums is highlighted. Differing perspectives of research involving people as research subjects in the context of nanotechnology and water are discussed.

The purpose of this chapter is not to take policy positions or to suggest solutions but merely to raise some of the important societal and ethical issues associated with nanotechnology, with a focus on its research and development in the water sector. In so doing, it is hoped that this section will form the basis of discussion on the policy ramifications of nanotechnology, from which positions and solutions can begin to emerge. Moreover, it is hoped that recognition of the ethical issues associated with nanotechnology will enable future ethical reviews of proposed nanotechnology research in order for the appropriate development to be carried out.

1.2 Ethics and Nanotechnology

1.2.1 What Is Ethics?

Before considering some of the main ethical issues generally related to nanotechnology and those concerning its application in the water sector, it is necessary to provide the reader with some idea of what “ethics” is and to describe our understanding of what “ethical issue” means. We therefore begin by doing so, before discussing some of the main ethical principles that should be taken into consideration in making ethical decisions.

Ethics is a branch of moral philosophy concerned with the moral choices people make. It includes the study of right and wrong, good or bad actions and/or policies. As a study of morality, it involves a careful systematic reflection on and analysis of actions and policies. It involves clarifying concepts, justification and analyzing or evaluating arguments.

Although it is closely related to the law, ethics is not identical to law. For example, prior to 1994 in South Africa, even though apartheid was law, it was certainly not ethical. In many countries, however, ethics is incorporated into aspects of the law. For example, in South Africa the Bill of Rights makes it unlawful to unfairly discriminate against other people on the basis of, among other grounds, race.

Ethical judgments are not just people expressing their opinions or personal preferences or stating the legal position on an issue. In ethics it is not enough to say that an action or policy is right or wrong, good or bad, without explaining why and without providing defensible reasons for one’s position. Ethics is an exercise of reason and not merely a recital of the law or a set of ethical codes that have been developed to apply to a select group of people. In ethics, our judgments must be justified, i.e., backed by good reasons grounded in ethical principles. The ideas that should come out on top are the ones best supported by the best reasons.

1.2.2 What Is an Ethical Issue

We can simply understand an “ethical issue” to mean an issue on which disputants’ differences in judgment or belief stem from differing assessments of the matter made from an ethical perspective [1]. An “ethical perspective” is one in which action assessments hinge on the assessor’s beliefs about its likely consequences for the well-being of parties affected or likely to be affected by it, or on the belief that the action (or practice or policy) is intrinsically good or right, evil or wrong, or obligatory [1]. An ethical perspective is to be understood here as a perspective of ethics and to be contrasted with, say, a legal perspective. An ethical dilemma is a situation in which no solution seems completely satisfactory. Opposing courses of action may seem equally desirable, or all possible solutions may seem undesirable [2].

Issues such as, for example, torture, abortion and physician-assisted suicide are ethical issues because agreement over what is right or best does not exist and because moral support is possible for more than one course of action. To designate them as ethical issues is, however, not to judge them as “ethical” in the positive sense that is the opposite of the negative sense connoted by “unethical.” Rather, it is to claim that matters thus designated fall within the domain of ethics. Hence, ethical issues are ones in which it is appropriate to bring to bear the concepts and principles of ethics in order to make judgments about the moral acceptability of related actions, practices or policies around controversial issues.

1.2.3 Basic Principles in Ethical Decision Making

Ethical judgments must be supported by principles. However, ethical decision making is almost never a matter of automatically applying principles and generating an answer, for two main reasons:

• The right thing to do often depends on the facts of the case which may be unknown, and
• The principles being applied may conflict with one another as well as with other values or goals.

Ethical principles derive from ethical theories or perspectives that expound different conceptions of what it means to live morally, in other words, that seek to tell us what is right and wrong. These principles provide insight into a range of important considerations that should be taken into account in ethical decision making. However, it is important to bear in mind that no single ethical principle can be applied individually. Instead, each ethical principle represents a partial contribution to an extraordinarily complex reality. So, even if we could decide which ethical principle is the “correct” one, how the principle is applied to specific practical issues will often be controversial because there is no consensus about the right or superior ethical principle. For example, one might argue that the right thing entails doing one’s duty, whereas someone else might argue it is to promote the public welfare, even at the expense of individual rights. Some of the main principles of ethics include utility, fairness, justice, proper human excellences and beneficence.

1.2.3.1 Utility

One of the most well-known general principles in ethics, the principle of utility (also known as the greatest happiness principle) tells us to produce the greatest balance of happiness over unhappiness, making sure that we give equal consideration to the happiness and unhappiness of everyone who stands to be affected by our actions. The principle of utility, whether it is applied to acts or rules, is certainly a reasonable principle, because how our behavior affects others should be of ethical concern to us. If we want our ethical rules to make our society a good society, then it is hard to argue against the claim that a happy society is better than an unhappy society. Thus the effect of our actions and ethical rules on the happiness and unhappiness of people should remain an important ethical consideration.

1.2.3.2 Fairness

Fairness is another important ethical consideration. However, knowing what the fairest thing to do is not always easy. Various conceptions of fairness have been offered, notably the Golden Rule and respect for persons. Many take the Golden Rule, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, to be the best standard of fairness. If we are to act ethically, we must, in terms of the Golden Rule, follow the same ethical rules in our dealings with others that we expect them to follow in their dealings with us. Thus the same ethical standards must apply to all of us.

Another conception of fairness is grounded in the principle of respect for persons, where fairness entails treating other people with respect. This kind of respect is quite distinct from the kind of respect exemplified by calling people by their appropriate titles. It is a special kind of respect, which is captured by the...