Special Issue from BePress: Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology

March 8, 2010

Small Divides, Big Challenges? Nanotechnologies and Human Health

This special issue is a collaborative effort to examine the impact of nanotechnology-based innovations on biomedical products development, on public health infrastructure, and on healthcare service delivery. In particular, appropriate policy measures seem a condition for avoiding that the current unequal distribution of risk and benefits between developed and developing countries are reproduced or even worsened by the introduction of nanotechnology into healthcare, as well as for fully delivering the promises of nanoscale research and technology to help address the most pressing and urgent health needs of the developing world. This collection of article attempts to examine these policy issues, by assessing the impacts of nanotechnologies on the potential and actual disparities in access to healthcare, especially at the international level, and by exploring the possible strategies to make nanotechnology help attain the highest standard of health for all.

Editorials

Nanotechnologies and Equal Access to Healthcare

Simone Arnaldi and Mariassunta Piccinni