People nowadays live in a human-made environment, or technotope. Their lives are entangled with technology. Because technology not only brings gifts but also costs and hazards, it is important to reflect on what good technology is and, indeed, whether a technology contributes to a good life.
The ethicists and social scientists united in this volume contribute to a novel approach to ethics and technology that initiates or enhances timely ethical reflection with scientists and engineers. Ethical reflection during research and development can help to anticipate how it can change human (social) like, and evaluate those changes. "Ethics on the Laboratory Floor" contributes to research decisions, for example with regard to what research goals to pursue, what research lines to prioritise, or how best to design user tests. By joining these deliberations "Ethics on the Laboratory Floor" helps to realise the best technological alternatives.

This collection of original articles, a sequel of sorts to the 2009 Religion and the Implications of Radical Life Extension (Palgrave Macmillan), is the first sustained reflection, by scholars with expertise in the faith traditions, on how the transhumanist agenda might impact the body.

Since World War II the regulation of conduct in the United States has become problematic. This condition has been recognized by ordinary citizens in the soaring crime rates, illegitimate births, neglect of the public good and increase in special and individual interests, preference for fame, fortune and power, gross immoral acts by public figures, and fascination of the media and the audience with spectacles of evil. The troubled control of social behavior in the nation is suggested by the fact that our society has no commonly accepted set of standards that can guide our actions. Heslep penetrates the bazaar of competing normative principles that Americans subscribe to in search of those logical and feasible standards of behavior that will conquer our nation's moral crisis. He then constructs an idea of character education for Americans, applying it to recent policy recommendations and to cases of individuals with moral education needs.

This book identifies risk and protective factors influencing routes into, through and out of sexual exploitation and sex work. It explores how the sense made of key childhood and adult experiences influences the ability to manage roles and identities and choices they feel empowered or forced to make.

This book is the first comprehensive, in-depth English language study of the animals that were left behind in the exclusion zone in the wake of the nuclear meltdown of three of the four reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011, triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake of magnitude 9.0.The Japanese government designated an area of 20-kilometer radius from the nuclear power station as an exclusion zone and evacuated one hundred thousand residents, but left companion animals and livestock animals behind in the radioactive area. Consequently, about 90 percent of the animals in the exclusion zone died. This book juxtaposes policies of the Japanese government toward the animals in Fukushima with the actions of grassroots volunteer animal rescue groups that filled the void of the government.

Empirical studies of life science research and biotechnologies in Asia show how assemblages of life articulate bioethics governance with global moralities and reveal why the global harmonization of bioethical standards is contrived.

How has America censored British films? In this original, fascinating book, Anthony Slide answers this question, making full use for the first time of the recently opened US Production Code Administration files. Film by film from the 1930s through to the 1960s, he tells the inside story of the ongoing dialogue between the British film making industry and the American censors. The book shows graphically how the Production Code system operated, revealing how the censors viewed moral issues, violence, bad language and matters of decorum as well as revealing acute national differences, such as American concern over the British preoccupation with toilets. It also dispels myths, depicting chief censor Joseph Breen and his staff as knowledgeable people who sympathized with and admired the British film industry.

With the growth of surveillance technologies globally, Taylor focuses on the phenomenon of the Surveillance School and explores the impact that continual monitoring is having upon school children, education and society.
Surveillance Schools are characterised by routine practices that identify, verify, categorise and track pupils. With biometric technologies such as fingerprinting and iris scanning, CCTV, microchips in ID cards and 'smart uniforms', metal detectors and police officers patrolling the school corridors with sniffer dogs, it is clear that schools have become increasingly fortified.
Taylor outlines the phenomenon of the Surveillance School, mapping the driving forces behind them and analyses the impact. The evidence emerging from empirical studies suggests that often these technologies do little to safeguard young people, do not represent financial savings or increased efficiency, but serve to strip pupils of their privacy, undermine their trust in others and create an atmosphere of suspicion.
This insightful research ultimately questions whether the incessant use of omnipresent technological surveillance has the ability to displace the very building blocks of democratic society. Taylor presents the school as a microcosm of society and invites us to experience a prophetic glance into the future of the surveillance society.

This book explores the absent and missing in debates about science and security. Through varied case studies, including biological and chemical weapons control, science journalism, nanotechnology research and neuroethics, the contributors explore how matters become absent, ignored or forgotten and the implications for ethics, policy and society.The chapter 'Sensing Absence: How to See What Isn't There in the Study of Science and Security' is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

Motivated by the observation that our current social and political theories do not properly account for the actual living circumstances of persons living the 21st century, this book calls for a reassessment of the starting points of moral, social, and political philosophy. Souffrant recognizes that, as it stands, our ethical theories start from a specific conception of the individual. While he believes that this approach has been helpful, he holds however that the contemporary circumstances regarding the way individuals live their lives, their particular interconnectedness and tacit and active participation in the conditions that affect us all, call for a reassessment of the starting points of moral, social and political philosophy.

When it comes to crime, everyone seems to take evil seriously as an explanatory concept - except criminologists. This book asks why, and why not, through exploring a variety of interdisciplinary approaches to evil from the perspectives of theology, philosophy, literary and cultural studies, and the social sciences.

Tracing the rise of extreme art cinema across films from Lars von Trier's 'The Idiots' to Michael Haneke's 'Cache', Asbjorn Gronstad revives the debate about the role of negation and aesthetics and reframes the concept of spectatorship in ethical terms.

In this comprehensive account of censorship of the visual arts in nineteenth-century Europe, when imagery was accessible to the illiterate in ways that print was not, specialists in the history of the major European countries trace the use of censorship by the authorities to implement their fears of the visual arts, from caricature to cinema.

Increasingly, consumers in North America and Europe see their purchasing as a way to express to the commercial world their concerns about trade justice, the environment and similar issues. This ethical consumption has attracted growing attention in the press and among academics. Extending beyond the growing body of scholarly work on the topic in several ways, this volume focuses primarily on consumers rather than producers and commodity chains. It presents cases from a variety of European countries and is concerned with a wide range of objects and types of ethical consumption, not simply the usual tropical foodstuffs, trade justice and the system of fair trade. Contributors situate ethical consumption within different contexts, from common Western assumptions about economy and society, to the operation of ethical-consumption commerce, to the ways that people's ethical consumption can affect and be affected by their social situation. By locating consumers and their practices in the social and economic contexts in which they exist and that their ethical consumption affects, this volume presents a compelling interrogation of the rhetoric and assumptions of ethical consumption.

Patricia Rosier died at her home in Fort Myers, Florida, in January of 1986, having sought the help of her prominent physician husband, Peter, to end her cancer-ravaged life with some measure of dignity. By November 1987, Peter had been indicted for first degree murder and faced death in Florida's electric chair. How could it happen? How does a loving husband and father get charged with first degree murder? This compelling true story shows just how easy it is in America's legal system. "Euthanasia" remains a crime in Florida and in most other states, yet the majority of such "criminals" are never prosecuted. But Dr. Rosier was singled out because he "confessed", both in a television interview and in writing, to believing in euthanasia and to assisting his wife's suicide. In Murder of Mercy every heart-pounding moment of Dr. Rosier's legal ordeal is vividly captured by famed trial attorney Stanley M. Rosenblatt, who, together with his wife and law partner, Susan, represented the accused. Describing an intriguing array of legal twists and turns, this riveting book is more than just gripping courtroom drama. Find out why Patricia's father and brothers sought immunity before they would testify. Feel the rush, the exhilaration, of planning defense strategy: How could anyone explain away Dr. Rosier's confessions? Could the Fort Myers judge be persuaded to change the location of the trial? Should Peter Rosier testify in his own defense? The powerful arguments of the State and the defense are laced with ridicule, sarcasm, and scorn: each side accusing the other of treacherous character assassination. Rosenblatt's penetrating assessment of judges, the use of expert witnesses, the exclusion ofrelevant evidence, attorney-client privilege, and the granting of immunity serve as the foundation for a searing critique of America's criminal justice system and the society it is designed to protect.

Sachdev provides a detailed examination of the psychological responses of women who have had abortions. The author surveyed a sample of unmarried women aged 18 to 25 who had had abortions during the past six months to one year. Based on in-depth interviews with these women, the study presents quantitative and qualitative findings. While some authors have stressed the negative psychological impact of abortion, Sachdev demonstrates that the majority of women in his study were comfortable with their decisions and experienced few adverse psychological reactions. Impressively researched, this insightful study persuasively refutes claims and myths such as: --women are increasingly using abortion as their primary method of contraception --the abortion experience is more traumatic than giving up a newborn infant for adoption --unrestrictive abortions encourage irresponsible sex --sex education and the ready availability of contraceptive devices encourage sexual experimentation --unmarried women get pregnant because they want to for some "underlying motives" --most unmarried abortees experience pathological guilt and depression following abortion surgery --abortions performed in hospitals are therapeutic and emotionally healthy The volume begins with a look at the abortion controversy in North America. The following chapter presents general information on the psychological effects of abortion. Sachdev then discusses his research methodology in detail, and through the chapters that follow he records and analyzes the attitudes and experiences of the women interviewed. The study includes information on the sexual activity and contraceptive history of the participants, their reaction to theirbecoming pregnant, the factors that persuaded them to have an abortion, and their experiences after the surgery. Unique features of this book: * provides an engaging and thorough account of the author's extensive interviews with women who have had an abortion * examines the sexual activity, the pregnancy, and abortion experience of unmarried women in the context of their social networks, i.e., peers, parents, male partners, siblings, an important aspect largely neglected in previous studies * the author integrates his findings with a broad survey of relevant literature * written in a lucid, crisp, and engaging style that captures the women's most vivid and intimate experiences in sex relations, and with pregnancy and abortion * based on a carefully selected sample of women, Sachdev breaks new ground in many areas, including the role of male partners, doctors and nurses, and of the hospital milieu in shaping the women's responses to pregnancy and abortion * integrates in a unique way pragmatic policy advice along with applied research

Examining the successful movements to abolish capital punishment in the UK, France, and Germany, this book examines the similarities in the social structure and political strategies of abolition movements in all three countries. An in-depth comparative analysis with other countries assesses chances of success of abolition elsewhere.

Changes in earth's atmosphere, oceans, soil, weather patterns, and ecosystems are well documented by countless scientific disciplines. These manifestations of climate change harm public health. Given their goals and social responsibilities, influential health organizations recognize health impacts compounded by geography, social values, social determinants of health, health behaviors, and relationships between humans and environments primarily described in feminist ethics and environmental ethics. Health impacts are relevant to, but seldom addressed in bioethics, global health, public policy, or health or environmental policy. This book is the first to describe cultural, geographic, and socioeconomic factors that influence the regional significance of these impacts and frame them for bioethics and policy analyses.

Few ethical issues create as much controversy as invasive experiments on animals. Some scientists claim they are essential for combating major human disease, or detecting human toxins. Others claim the contrary, backed by thousands of patients harmed by pharmaceuticals developed using animal tests. Some claim all experiments are conducted humanely, to high scientific standards. Yet, a wealth of studies have recently revealed that laboratory animals suffer significant stress, which may distort experimental results.
-Where, then, does the truth lie?
-How useful are such experiments in advancing human healthcare?
-How much do animals suffer as a result?
-And do students really need to dissect or experiment on animals?
-What are the effects on their attitudes towards them? Bioethicist and veterinarian Andrew Knight presents more than a decade of ground-breaking scientific research, analysis and experience to provide evidence-based answers to a key question: is animal experimentation ethically justifiable?

"Hurwitz surveys the types of expression that have been subject to censorship, repression, and punishment in the US. . . . This valuable reference work is highly recommended for all libraries." Choice

What rallies or inspires people to champion the different causes surrounding filtering or free expression? How do people vary in their views on what the First Amendment guarantees? This book encourages students to think critically about the pros and cons of censorship. The profiles of individuals who are active in free speech debates show that while there aren't always black and white answers, there are numerous ways to take a firm stand on the issues.

Readers will be introduced to a wide variety of people, from feminists arguing both sides of the debate over pornography, to those who believe no one can clearly define what is harmful and what is not. The book also presents people motivated by religious convictions to censor material they consider negative or detrimental. Fifty individual stories about activists on frontlines, fighting for what they believe, bring the controversies surrounding filtering and freedom of expression into sharp focus, offering a rich platform for consideration and debate.

From 1815 to 1914, European governments and their political oppositions were engaged in a constant "war" for the minds of the general population, especially the working classes. The German socialist newspaper, Hamburger Echo, declared on September 27, 1910, "In waging our war, we do not throw bombs. Instead we throw our newspapers amongst the masses of the working people. Printing ink is our explosive." The most comprehensive study ever published about European censorship practices during the 1815-1914 period, this book discusses the censorship of books, newspapers, caricatures, theater, and film through an analytical introductory survey and six chapters by leading specialists who summarize 19th-century censorship practices in the six major countries of continental Europe: Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Russia, and Spain. As a result of the massive transformation of European life in the post-Napoleonic period and the simultaneously rapid growth in industrialization, urbanization, literacy, transportation, and communication, the average European emerged quite suddenly as a potential player who could no longer be ignored by the ruling elite.

Shocked by the fact that, in the Netherlands, psychiatric patients are considered potentially appropriate candidates for physician-assisted suicide, Olevitch examines the research and data and finds that, even in the United States, the situation is threatening. She describes how the rhetoric of the assisted-suicide movement can confuse potential suicide victims and their helpers, and how surrogate medical decisions are a growing threat in the lives of incompetent patients. Olevitch argues the assisted-suicide movement is based not on the level-headed realism its advocates claim, but on a lack of information about up-to-date ways of bringing about psychological wellness, on a misguided panic about finances, a phobic view of medical procedures, a lack of understanding of the support needed by average medical patients, and a misguided belief in superficial safeguards.

Olevitch describes how Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy can be used to help terminally ill or disabled people overcome their profound depression. Another cognitive focus is added as she presents material answering questions including what patients are really thinking when they request assisted suicide or when they decline medical procedures. Well-known psychologist Albert Ellis says of the volume, Carefully read this unusual book and see how it can be useful to you, whether you are a physician, a mental health professional, or an unfortunate patient

This book is a critical analysis of the technologies of identity-formation in governmental family planning policy. Panu argues that in order for contemporary liberalism to govern legitimately, governmental discourses have to create and subsequently alienate certain identities as "other" that is, as the polar opposite of the good, normal citizen. These identities usually center on the poor, the racialised, and the gendered. These arguably discriminatory practices are illustrated through the investigation of the U.S. bio- and anatomo-politics of reproduction in the national family planning strategy, in an analytical framework that relates them to the welfare benefit policies in the same country. Panu argues that as long as neo-liberal governmental apparatuses map and rule society using this combination of "othering" and foundational assumptions, each governmental intervention reinforces the systems that make domination, inequality, and exclusion possible.

A powerful claim for the virtues of a more thoughtful and collegiate approach to the academy today. This book offers a response to the culture of metrics, mass digitisation, and accountability (as opposed to responsibility, or citizenship) that has developed in higher education world wide, as exemplified by the UK's Research Excellence Framework exercise (REF), and the increasing bureaucracy that limits the time available for teaching, research, and even conversation and collaboration. Ironically, these are problems that will be solved only by academicsfinding the time to talk and to work together. The essays collected here both critique the culture of speed in the neoliberal university and provide examples of what can be achieved by slowing down, by reclaiming research and research priorities, and by working collaboratively across the disciplines to improve conditions. They are informed both by recent research in medieval studies and by the problematic culture of twenty-first century higher education. The contributions offer very personal approaches to the academic culture of the present moment. Some tackle issues of academic freedom head-on; others more obliquely; but they all have been written as declarations of theacademic freedom that comes with slow thinking, slow reading, slow writing and slow looking and the demonstrations of its benefits. CATHERINE E. KARKOV is Professor and Chair of Art History at the University of Leeds. Contributors: Lara Eggleton, Karen Jolly, Chris Jones, James Paz, Andrew Prescott, Heather Pulliam