Band 2, Heft 3

The article deals with the Dawson College Massacre, focusing on the story of Kimveer Gill, a 25-year-old man from Laval, Montreal who wished to murder young students in Dawson College. It is argued that the international community should continue working together to devise rules for monitoring specific Internet sites, as human lives are at stake. Preemptive measures could prevent the translation of murderous thoughts into murderous actions. Designated monitoring mechanisms of certain websites that promote violence and seek legitimacy as well as adherents to the actualization of murderous thoughts and hateful messages have a potential of preventing such unfortunate events. Our intention is to draw the attention of the multifaceted international community (law enforcement, governments, the business sector including Internet Service Providers, websites' administrators and owners as well as civil society groups) to the shared interest and need in developing monitoring schemes for certain websites, in order to prevent hideous crimes.

A complementary `monetary' system is proposed: a computer-based system that allows us to assess the relative pro-community altruism of individuals. Such an arrangement could provide us with an alternate means of seeking social recognition than that offered by capitalism; specifically it offers the possibility of recognition based on altruistic contributions to society. This proposal promises several ethical advantages to our present social arrangements.

Traditionally reproduction, gestation and childbirth have all been regarded as being primarily a woman's domain. As natural reproduction occurs inside a woman's body, respect for autonomy and bodily integrity requires the pregnant woman to have the conclusive say over the fate of the embryo/fetus growing within her. Thus traditionally the ethics and law of reproduction is dominated by the importance of respecting women's reproductive choices. This paper argues that emerging technologies demand a radical rethink of ethics and law in the area of reproduction. The creation and storing of embryos outside of a woman's body and maintaining a pregnancy in a brain dead woman's body and future possibilities such as ectogenesis and male pregnancy raise important issues that cannot simply be answered by appealing to the rights of women to control their bodies. There are those who argue that when reproduction or reproductive products exist outside of a woman's body each gamete donor should have an equal say over the fate of the embryo/fetus. Others, however, argue that giving an equal say to gamete donors in practice usually means allowing the male donor to veto the reproductive enterprise and this is unacceptable. As a result it has been suggested that women should be favoured when it comes to such reproductive choices. This paper examines both sides of this debate in order to answer the fundamental ethical and policy question: 'Is there any reason why women should necessarily retain control over reproduction rather than simply over their own bodies?'

Islam comprises a set of doctrinal, jurisprudent and ethical beliefs and regulations, extrapolated from a number of legal sources that vary according to denomination. The Islamic sources of legislation from which Shiah jurisprudents derive law and social policy include the Quran, traditions and reason.In this paper, we shall first outline the method of extrapolating rulings – from the Shiah perspective – and then illustrate how different legal mechanisms are put into play when verdicts are issued in relation to different aspects of abortion. The main function of jurisprudents lies in their understanding of the verses of the Quran and traditions. The two pivotal concepts extracted from the transmitted texts that constitute the driving force and rationale behind Shiah jurisprudent rulings are those of personhood and ensoulment.

Current notions of privacy protection may not offer adequate protection to persons in marginalized social groups because privacy protection is still predicated on an individual protection paradigm. Drawing on arguments advanced by privacy scholars on group privacy, and the application of the notion of group protection in data protection legislation, this article argues for incorporation of non-discrimination provisions in data protection laws and border control policy in order to enhance protection for those in marginalized social groups. It also purports that security and control of persons are both individual and group oriented and supports a similar group approach in privacy protection.

Consumer demand for new products within the cosmetics and toiletries industry has encouraged the industry increasingly to incorporate and experiment with new products and processes, including nanotechnologies. A number of cosmetic products which claim to incorporate engineered nano-materials have already entered the market and include, for instance, anti-ageing creams, make up, hair care products, cleansers and moisturisers. While the use of engineered nano-materials within cosmetics offers a range of benefits, including increased transparency and solubility, there has been increasing debate over the potential risks associated with a number of the nano-materials already found in these products. While such concerns are not unique to the cosmetics sector, due to the direct application of these products onto the human skin, concern has been expressed over the potential health effects of nanotechnology-based cosmetics. This is despite the fact that cosmetic products are subject to regulatory controls within every jurisdiction in which they are sold. With debate over the safety of cosmetics containing nano-materials likely to escalate in line with the number of products entering the marketplace, this article examines the adequacy of the current regulatory framework for cosmetics containing nanoscale materials within one of the world’s largest cosmetic's market, the European Union. Two case studies are presented, and the effectiveness of the Cosmetics Directive is examined by reference to these two products. By drawing on this analysis, the article articulates the strengths and weaknesses of the current regulatory regime, and discusses how these may be addressed under the proposed new regulatory framework.

Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology (SELT) differs from similar journals in the field in the following way: it is broader both in terms of focusing on a wide range of technologies as well as giving equal attention to ethical and regulatory questions. Besides, being an electronic medium, SELT has no limited word count, which characterizes hard copy journals. Finally, SELT seems to invite more pioneering and imaginative work. These points are being well demonstrated by this third issue of SELT's second volume.

Sandel's book argues against genetic enhancement as an illegitimate expression of a drive to human mastery and a rejection of the proper appreciation of the gift of life. His view combines bad theology with bad virtue ethics, and exemplifies the problem of status quo bias in ethics.