Ethical issues in brain nanomedicine

Brain pathology is a perfect application field for nanotechnologies supporting the concept of nanomedicine. It implies the use of nanosized tools for diagnosis and therapy and finally the switch to nanosized disease. A good illustration is the synergistic association of functional neurosurgery to micro/nanotechnologies. The developments around electrostimulation are a good example of the lower invasivity and better therapeutical efficacy that can be achieved. Nanolevel disease detection and therapy dramatically modifies medical philosophy as well as practice. The demonstration of the validity of the concept of nanomedicine has to be done carefully and this period of validation is a precious time to solve ethical problems. Ethical issues include the problem of disease detection in “healthy patients”; the non medical use of nanotechnologies, and the acceptance of what could be a potentially uncontrollable major modification of the human body. All these items are used against nanotechnologies, thus it will be crucial to inform the public about the state of the art in nanomedicine and about the existing regulations. National and European regulations should be adequate for nanomedicine, provided there is progressive integration instead of a conservative attitude blocking experiments and progress. The European research community has a good opportunity to do that.