The ethical and legal implications of nanotechnologies: a preliminary survey to picture the perceptions of law students and medical students.

Purposes. The aim of this preliminary survey was to picture the current knowledge and opinions of law students and medical students about nanotechnologies. Marterials and Methods. Data were collected in June 2012 by interviews with 60 students of the University of Camerino (Macerata, Italy) defined as “jurist population” and 159 medical students of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Rome, Italy) defined as “medical population”. Results. The Authors found that both law and medical students have some knowledge on what nanotechnologies are; with regards to the ethical issues and risks perception, both categories indicated that nanotechnologies generate bioethical issues. Nevertheless, a high percentage of respondents believed that neither existing technologies nor nanotechnologies pose risks for human health. Opinions on regulation of nanotechnologies are instead different. Conclusions. These preliminary findings underlined the ambiguity surrounding nanotechnologies both concerning the bioethical dimension and risks perception and their regulation. These early data therefore showed a need of additional reflection on these technologies that should be investigated more in detail; moving from students, future scientists and regulators, these data could contribute to clarify the debate on them.