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Nanoethics is a contentious field for several reasons. Some believe it should not be recognized as a proper area of study, because they believe that nanotechnology itself is not a true category but rather an amalgamation of other sciences, such as chemistry, physics, and engineering. Critics also allege that nanoethics does not raise any new issues but rather revisits familiar ones such as privacy. This paper answers such criticisms and sets the context for the papers that follow in this nanoethics symposium. N anoethics, or the study of nanotechnology's ethical and social implications, is an emerging but controversial Þ eld. Outside of the industry and academia, most people are Þ rst introduced to nanotechnology through Þ ctional works that posit scenarios-which scientists largely reject-of self-replicating "nanobots" running amok like a pandemic virus. 1 In the mainstream media, we are beginning to hear more reports about the risks nanotechnology poses on the environment, health and safety, with conß icting reports from within the industry. Given this growing interest in nanoethics, as well as related confusion, this symposium of the International Journal of Applied Ethics is dedicated to a survey of some of its central issues. But before we dive into that symposium, we must Þ rst address a persistent meta-controversy surrounding the status of nanotechnology itself, which casts questions about the legitimacy of nanoethics as its own discipline. Some people have complained that nanotechnology is not a real discipline in the Þ rst place, or at least not a clearly deÞ ned one, thereby making its ethics equally ill-deÞ ned. Others argue further that nanoethics is not entitled to its own discipline, because it does not raise any new questions that are not already considered by, say, bioethics or computer ethics. In this introduction, we will explain why nanoethics is a discipline in its own right as well as set some context for the papers that follow.

This essay presents some general background on nanomedicine, particularly focusing on some of the investment that is being made in this emerging field. The bulk of the essay, however, consists of explorations of two areas in which the impacts of nanomedicine are likely to be most significant: diagnostics and medical records and treatment, including surgery and drug delivery. Each discussion includes a survey some of the ethical and social issues that are likely to arise in these applications.

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