Nanotechnology and the Future of Medicine

Nanoscale: Issues and Perspectives for the Nano Century

Volumn , Issue , 2007, Pages 337-357

  Hook, C Christopher ^a  

^a MAYO CLINIC   (United States)

Author keywords

Legitimate treatment and "enhancement"; Nanomedicine nanotechnology application in medicine; Nanomedicine and human re engineering

Indexed keywords

EID: 84890638804     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.1002/9780470165874.ch19     Document Type: Chapter

References (66)

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7. Available at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/nanomedicine.
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27. A number of Professor Shapiro's publications and presentations may be found. Available at http:// www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~udi.
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30. Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near.
31. FAQs. Available at http://www.transhumanism.org.
32. The premier prolongevist is Aubrey de Grey. A large number of his articles and information regarding the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence may be found. Available at http://www.sens.org.
33. Bostrom, N. (2001). What Is Transhumanism? Available at http://www.nickbostrom.com (retrieved October 17, 2006).
34. Ray Kurzweil, in testimony before a committee of the U.S. Congress, called for a nanobiotechnology research program for the goal of replacing the nucleus and ribosome machinery of each cell in the body with a nanocomputer and nanorobotics system to prevent diseases and aging, and enhance human capabilities. One of the more strident, and comical, demands comes from a chap who refers to himself as Elixxir in The ImmorTalist Manifesto. Bloomington, Indiana: Authorhouse. 2001.
35. The WTA website (www.transhumanism.org) claims 3766 members worldwide, most of whom reside in the North America and Europe. However, other radical utopian groups, that ultimately inflicted a huge amount of damage upon humanity, such as the National Socialists in Germany, started out with fairly low numbers, but were extremely aggressive in promoting their views, just as are the transhumanists.
36. Naam, R. (2005). More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement. New York: Broadway Books.
37. Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near
38. Hughes, J. (2005). Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. New York: Westview Press
39. Silver, L. M. (2006). Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. Silver probably would not use the term transhumanist as a self-descriptor, but his techno-utopianism, and pro-re-engineering views are indistinguishable from the more honest, card-carrying transhumanists.
40. Bailey, R. (2005). Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution. New York: Prometheus Books
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43. By technique, I am referring to the inclusion of bureaucratic and political systems as a form of technology in the manner of Jacques Ellul and Lewis Mumford.
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45. Rummel, R. (1997). Death by Government. New York: Transaction Publishers.
46. Delsol, C. (2006). The Unlearned Lessons of the Twentieth Century. Wilmington: ISI Books. All are excellent sources exploring this point. Indeed, the existentialist movement, and much of post-modernist philosophy has arisen as a critique of the failures of the politico- and technoutopian projects of the enlightenment.
47. Freitas, R. A., Jr. (1999). Nanomedicine, p. 20.
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49. Preamble of the Constitution of the W.H.O.
50. Quoted in the A&E television documentary, The Sell and Spin: A History of Advertising. 2002.
51. Parens, E., ed. (1998). Enhancing Human Traits: Ethical and Social Implications. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
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54. There is a legitimate diagnosis of social anxiety disorder, which may exist independently or accompany another disorder, such as autism. However, the ad campaigns tended to show normal situations in which most people experience some degree of anxiety, with the degree varying on a wide, but normal, spectrum and attempted to turn that into a disease.
55. Another term for medicalization is "disease mongering". A nice comment on disease mongering may be found at Moynihan, R. and Henry, D. (2006). The Fight Against Disease Mongering. PLoS Medicine 3(4), e191. Available at http://www.plosmedicine.org (retrieved October 17, 2006).
56. An excellent discussion of how the nontherapeutic use of human growth hormone is an example of how medical interventions become perverted and ultimately accepted for enhancement purposes can be found in Rothman, Sheila M. and Rothman, David J. (2003). The Pursuit of Perfection: The Promise and Peril of Medical Enhancement. New York: Pantheon Books.
57. Walters, LeR. and Palmer, J., quoted in Juengst, E. T. (1998). What Does Enhancement Mean? in Parens, Erik, ed. (1998). Enhancing Human Traits: Ethical and Social Implications. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
58. Footnote 44, pp. 101-130.
59. TheAmerican Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2004 Statistics.Available at http://www.surgery.org/ press/statistics-2002.php (retrieved October 17, 2006).
60. TheAmerican Society forAesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2004 Statistics.Available at http://www.surgery.org/ press/statistics-2004.php (retrieved October 17, 2006).
61. 1997 Psychology Today Poll of 4000 respondents.
62. The Michelle Pfeiffer cover shot in Esquire (December 1996) is discussed by Bob Andelman in Nothing Except $1,525 Touch Ups, at Adbusters. Available at http://www.andelman.com/mrmedia/95/ 7.4.95.html.
63. Miss Digital World's Web site. Available at http:// www.missdigitalworld.com/MDWContest/showpage/6.
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66. Ross, P. (2006, May). Tiny Toxins? Technology Review.