– The purpose of this viewpoint is to draw attention to a relatively new set of ethical challenges presented by pills contain sensors and other similar “nanobots” that send information back to the doctor and to call for a public dialogue on these issues.
– The approach for this paper is to examine recent news reports on these new technologies and suggest an approach to an ethical framework based on similar challenges in digital privacy.
– Based on the rapid evolution of the technology, the author believes that there are four critical areas to be considered to create an ethical framework for implantable/ingestible devices that transmit real-time information – informed consent, anonymization, approved usage and the right of deletion.
– The findings will need to be augmented once these devices are in common use to evaluate the real-world viability of the ethical framework proposed.
– To the best of our knowledge, evaluations of the ethical challenges represented by ingestible devices transmitting real-time data, if they exist, have been limited to specialized journals and have not been the subject of broader discussion.
