Some scholars argue that the principle of voluntary informed consent is rooted in the Western ethos of liberal individualism; that it would be difficult to implement this requirement in societies where the norms of decision-making emphasize collective rather than individual decision-making (for example, Sub-Saharan Africa); that it would amount to “cultural imperialism” to seek to implement the principle of voluntary informed consent in non-Western societies. This thesis rejects this skepticism about the possibility of implementing the informed consent requirement in non-Western environments and argues that applying the principle of voluntary informed consent in human subjects’ research in Sub-Saharan African communal culture could serve as an effective measure to protect vulnerable subjects from possible abuses or exploitations. The thesis proposes the “multi-step” approach to informed consent as the best approach to the implementation of the principle in the African communal setting. The thesis argues that the importance of the “multi-step” approach lies in the fact that it is one that is sensitive to local culture and customs. On the question of whether the principle of voluntary informed consent should be made compulsory in research, the thesis answers that we have no choice in the matter.

Debate over Intellectual Property Rights ‘IPRs’ particularly patent and copyrights is mainly on forward-looking industries in computer software. As part of a trade deal reached in 1994, the member nations of the World Trade Organisation must adhere to a global agreement known as TRIPS, for the Trade- Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights.

This study is to analyse the ethical conception of Intellectual Property Rights and in particular its implications on the developing countries in relation to TRIPS. The approach will be to analyse a broad philosophical theories of property to see if there is any justification for a software program to be treated as private property and also argue base on John Rawls two principles of justice in relation to TRIPS Agreement. Some reflections will be put on the use of open-source software by less developing countries.

From the study it was asserted that, strong IPRs protection would hinder technological transfer and indigenous learning activities in the early stage of industrialisation when learning takes place through reverse engineering. And policy makers should consider differentiation in terms of the level of economic and industrial development, if protection and enforcement of IPRs is intended to enhance technological development.

Consumers often have a positive attitude to the option of receiving personalized nutrition advice based upon genetic testing, since the prospect of enhancing or maintaining one’s health can be perceived as empowering. Current direct-to-consumer services over the Internet, however, suffer from a questionable level of truthfulness and consumer protection, in addition to an imbalance between far-reaching promises and contrasting disclaimers. Psychological and behavioral studies indicate that consumer acceptance of a new technology is primarily explained by the end user’s rational and emotional interpretation as well as moral beliefs. Results from such studies indicate that personalized nutrition must create true value for the consumer. Also, the freedom to choose is crucial for consumer acceptance. From an ethical point of view, consumer protection is crucial, and caution must be exercised when putting nutrigenomic-based tests and advice services on the market. Current Internet offerings appear to reveal a need to further guaranty legal certainty by ensuring privacy, consumer protection and safety. Personalized nutrition services are on the borderline between nutrition and medicine. Current regulation of this area is incomplete and undergoing development. This situation entails the necessity for carefully assessing and developing existing rules that safeguard fundamental rights and data protection while taking into account the sensitivity of data, the risks posed by each step in their processing, and sufficient guarantees for consumers against potential misuse.

Hård kritik mot friande beslut. Förra hösten fann vi att en medicinforskare fabricerat och förfalskat forskningsresultat. Det är den mest omfattande utredningen om forsknings­fusk under efterkrigstiden. För två veckor sedan drog Vetenskapsrådets nye chef tillbaka utredningen med en motivering som är helt tagen ur luften. Beslutet riskerar att ytterligare försämra förtroendet för forskningen i Sverige och för arbetet mot forskningsfusk, skriver den expertgrupp i Vetenskapsrådet som utredde miss­tankarna mot forskaren.

Science and technology has been the bedrock of human growth and dynamism. Man has over the years distinguished his existence from all other beings by his ability to champion and fashion his existence. Among his tools is biotechnology which actually attenuates the fears of aging and death.

Human reproductive cloning stands out as one of the means through which biotechnology plans to achieve this perfect existence for man. Technological advancements in the field of biotechnology are now in the threshold of human procreation.

Human reproductive cloning is seen as an assisted method of reproduction which creates a newborn that is genetically identical to another human being.Human reproductive cloning as a technology and as a means of reproduction is not without its pros and cons. In as much as the technology promises to mention but a few, hope for the infertile couples and single parents, as well as the hope of reproduction without passing on hereditary diseases; it at the same time beeps some flashes of worry. Hence, the inherent threat to the notion of parenthood which does not smack of compromise, coupled with other ethical implications are reasons one may proffer not to have this technology.

Technologised parenthood stands out as an implication of human reproductive cloning and as such it considers issues in human sexuality i.e. the place of human sexuality in reproduction and then the nature of the family which is the playground of human existence. This thesis focuses on this implication of human reproductive cloning while making a critical exposition of the concept of human reproductive cloning.

This thesis aims at answering the following questions:1) How can the existence of a state be justified?2) To what extent does the state have the right to restrict individual´s liberty of action?3) To what extent does the state have the right to restrict or redistribute any kind of "goods", and if so, which restrictions should be allowed on which"goods"?4) Can a moral theory be "goal-directed", and are there moral reasons that it should be "goaldirected"?

In order to answer these questions, I will analyze Robert Nozick´s and Michael Walzer´s answers to these questions, as presented in Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974) and Spheres of Justice (1983). My answers, which are founded on an argument for the necessity of freedom of choice and ambition-sensitivity in theories of justice, are results of a compromise between the ideas in these theories, but also partially on criticism of both theories.

There is so much hunger in the developing poor countries of the world that the extent of inequality calls for a re-examination of global resources distribution especially as it concerns global debt crisis. The debts and their servicing obligation worsen the condition of the poor. Their cancellation could grant some respite to these global poor. This is why the call for a total and unconditional cancellation of Third World debt becomes a moral imperative. This needs to be given a normative approach especially as most of the debts were said to have arisen from morally questionable contracts. The demand for their cancellation is therefore a demand for global justice viewed from the stand point of rectification and distribution.

We now live in an era of experts on virtually everything, among which we have professional medical ethicists, who gained prominence in the late 60s due to dramatic advances in medical technology. Before then, medical ethics issues were not thought as separable from the warp and woof of the everyday life. Medical technology’s advancement cascades legions of moral problems in medicine and biomedical research. Series of innovative interventions in medicine raise throngs of ethical questions. In most cases that have to do with issues of life and death, there are perceived moral conflicts. Due to this swath of problematic issues that need solutions, some apologists favour medical ethics experts as fit for the job, while critics argue that no one has the knowledge or skill for dealing with moral quandaries because objective truth is not feasible in ethics and moral judgment is relative to cultures, beliefs and values. The necessity for medical ethicists to take active role in Medical Ethics Debates, either in Committees at the institutional level, or at any other decision-making mechanisms is justified in this thesis. In addition to this, the thesis also justifies medical ethicists’ role as expert consultants to clinicians and individuals alike This justification is based on complex moral problems accentuated by medical technology, which are far from being easily solved through mere appeal to individual reason, but rather by involving medical ethicists based on their specialized knowledge and high level understanding of research and practice. Although critics question the authority with which experts speak on these issues, nevertheless, the thesis unravels the roles, functions, significance and components of expert’s expertise that separate him/her from the crowd. Arguments are critically analysed and medical ethicists’ limits and professional flaws are addressed, with a view to establishing a virile foundation for the profession of medical ethics.

The paper deals with the problem of the moral status of human embryos in vitro obtained via somatic cell nuclear transfer, in vitro fertilization and similar biotechnologies. The purpose of research is to investigate whether it is possible to ascribe the position of full moral status to the embryo in vitro relying on its intrinsic properties. In particular, the property of totipotency of a human zygote was taken as presupposition in carrying out further moral assessments. To achieve these goals I have examined the applicability of the potentiality argument for evaluating moral status of the embryo within the frameworks of modal logic. The potential of the human embryo to become a person with full-fledged number of moral rights was interpreted using real, dispositional and counterfactual predicates. It was found that the role of potentiality argument is reduced to a precautionary principle and it failed to provide full moral status to the embryo in vitro. The potential of the embryo proper has a strong relational component that assigns it certain instrumental value. The latter implies that biomedical experimentation with the embryos in vitro cannot be considered as morally unacceptable.

The objective for this study is to examine whether it is possible to use the method of reflective equilibrium in order to enhance the usefulness of public debates as a support for political decision-making. Since public debates from political quarters are seen as an important tool for policy-making, the need for a rational assessment of the views put forward in such debates are important. And since reflective equilibrium aims for coherence between judgments on different levels – intuitions, principles and theories, which all are put forward in public debates – the point of departure for this theses is that this method could be useful for the matter of bringing some kind of structure to public debates.

The analysis in this study shows that there actually are similarities between the method of reflective equilibrium and the course of public debates, since they both are characterized by the fact that viewpoints are mutually scrutinized in the light of one another. Further, it is argued that a more systematic applying of the method of reflective equilibrium would further the justification force of the outcome of public debates, since the method stresses the need of rationality and the importance of taking all relevant opinions into consideration. Therefore, the conclusion is that applying reflective equilibrium to public debates could make the political decision-making more democratic.

From my experience in the beginning of my working as a teacher it was difficult to draw a line for when the working week was over, and even more difficult to end it with a feeling of complacency, which made me interested in exploring this frontier: Where is the border between the teacher's professional role and his own private sphere?  In this essay I have therefore looked at how the border between the teacher's professional role and his own private sphere is defined in the political policy documents, working agreements and the teacher's explicit professional ethics. I have also tried to give an idea of the consequences for the teacher and his or her private sphere under the conditions that prevail today. The study shows that these borders are vaguely defined, and that teachers today struggle to maintain their private sphere, and thus to take advantage of the values and functions that it contains. The question also turns out to be closely related to the issue of delimitation of the profession at large – about what should be accommodated within the teaching assignment, in particular in relation to the design of the working frame. 

This is an investigatory work on the Aristotelian foundations of Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach and the disability issue. After an initial exposition of the capabilities approach and the application of the approach on the disability issue, the author makes a survey of the previous works of Nussbaum on Aristotle. That survey of the works of Nussbaum on Aristotle was utilized to evaluate the Aristotelian foundations of the capabilities approach (which Nussbaum claims is an Aristotelian approach). The conclusion was that Aristotle, as developed by Nussbaum, does not provide a sufficient foundation for the approach nor for the issue on disability.

This thesis examines whether animal biotechnology is compatible with the norms of animal welfare, environment, and public health. For this purpose, it explores two lines of ethical controversy — intrinsic argument and extrinsic argument. The intrinsic argument against biotechnology maintains that it is “objectionable in itself”. On the other hand, according to extrinsic argument animal biotechnology is ethically wrong because it has got negative consequences upon human beings, animals, and environment.  However, it is also true that biotechnology (whether animal or agricultural) is one of the means of our living today. We cannot deny or oppose its usefulness all on a sudden. We need to be careful as well as critical in this regard. Therefore, it is an imperative that we select tools for making better assessment of biotechnology. In order to examine the ethical acceptability of animal biotechnology, we need to assess the impact of this technology and its potential effects upon the four interest factors: (i) consumers, (ii) farmers and financiers, (iii) treated organisms, and (iv) environment. In this regard, I have opted for Mepham’s ethical matrix, which is a practical approach for addressing broader policy issues. I think that ethical matrix is such a theory that it can incorporate the demand of science and the multidimensional complexity of it that exists today. Mepham’s ethical matrix can lead one towards rational ethical analysis and weighing and integrating potentially conflicting values in the decision-making process. At the end of this study, I have focused on the application of Mepham’s ethical matrix upon some contexts of animal biotechnology, such as bST, transgenic animal, and xenotransplantation. Finally, through the analysis, I came to the conclusion that none of the ethical tools or theories can materially represent the problems to facilitate the ethical debate about animal biotechnology.

Do we have a moral duty to offer severely ill asylum- seeking children permanent residence permits?

This thesis analyses our moral duty to offer 410 severely ill asylum-seeking children permanent residence permits. During 2004 an emotionally charged debate started in Sweden. The debate concerned the deportation of 410 severely ill asylum- seeking children and their families. For this and other reasons Sweden was criticized by the United Nations commission along with human rights organizations for being too restrictive in its migration and asylum politics. My thesis outlines the migration and asylum debate and the refugee situation in the world at present together with facts about how the asylum procedure takes place in Sweden. Further I draw upon medical research connected to the asylum procedure along with how the Swedish Government and Save the Children respond to the migration and asylum debate.

I also explore which rights, in terms of legal implications and ethical principles, these children have. Additional I outline theories in political philosophy from the utilitarian and communitarian tradition. The two philosophers I refer to are Michael Walzer and Peter Singer to apply their views to my primary question. Finally, I reach a critical analysis where I summarize and discuss my research. In the end I offer my final reflections in order to further debate on migration and asylum issues.

This thesis provides and ethical discussion of the place of marketing in U.S. public schools.  This problem is especially interesting in a time where schools are having their budgets vastly cut.  The importance of education is lauded as the reason to allow marketing, along with it being used as a teaching tool, among other reasons.  The opponents of in-school marketing are discussed, such as health and psychological problems and the social functions of school.  I conclude that marketing in U.S. public schools should no longer be allowed, but that it is only realistic to eliminate it gradually.

This paper addresses the expectation that immigrants will assimilate into the culture of their new country, why that expectation may be legitimate and how the modern state may act upon it. The central contention made is that because a national culture provides meaning and structure to the lives of members, and because that culture must be both traditional and institutionalized by the state to fulfill that purpose, if the state’s institutions, processes and procedures through their association with the national culture create an assimilative pressure on immigrants, this is morally permissible. However, the modern state is restricted from actively pursuing assimilation in the private sphere because of its commitment to individual liberty. Implications of this argument for the nature of citizenship and public policy are also discussed.

This thesis is a study of aspects of corporate culture that are generally ignored by the researchers. It considers issues like the effect of culture in ethical decision making, ethics in the marketing of insurance products and salespersons’ attitudes and assessment of ethical dilemmas like bluffing.

This thesis explores the morality of bluffing in insurance sales while considering Pakistani culture. The word "bluffing" represents a wide range of practices from lying and deception to exaggeration of product features. Philosophers disagree on the morality of bluffing by considering different meanings. This thesis tries to evaluate all the meanings and comes to the idea that bluffing is different from deceptive practices. However, the morality of bluffing is dependent on the industry’s situation, cultural norms and expectations of the customers regarding the salesperson’s role. The practice of bluffing in insurance sales is discussed in this thesis because the insurance industry is perceived as less ethical by customers due to its major fraud cases. Moreover, this thesis tries to show the impact of cultural values in shaping the expectations of a particular behavior from an industry. By taking the example of the Pakistani insurance industry, this thesis tries to evaluate the act of bluffing in that particular culture. It studies the situation and expectations of customers in insurance sales negotiations. The aim of this thesis is to show that it is inappropriate to define bluffing as either moral or immoral, separating it from the situation. While considering the example of Pakistan, this thesis concludes that bluffing is immoral in this particular context.

Nanotechnology plays an important role in today’s society because it allows convergence to the nanoscale, that is to say to the level of atoms and molecules, as part of a miniaturization trend; and also because it is being used for improving human performance or enhancement. Nanotechnology will have a tremendous impact thanks to its potentialities, and the human desire for enhancement - and for some even the desire to reach a posthuman stage. Since nanotechnology-based human applications – cyborgs and implants – might represent a threat to what defines us as humans, namely our human nature, a different approach on the distinction between therapy and enhancement is needed in order to handle those applications in a wiser and more responsible way. This thesis will work on such approach.

If altruistic surrogacy should be legal in Sweden, laws concerning screening of the parents should be mandatory and adoption should be promoted as an alternative to surrogacy to a larger extent. Both in surrogacy and adoption the best interest of the child should be a priority, but parents regardless of sexuality, income and to some extent age, should qualify as long as they can prove their ability as parents.

Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs has been a consistent controversial topic extensively debated in scholarly work by many authors. This thesis compares the arguments made by the proponents and opponents of this debate and comes to a conclusion that there is less justification in claims that DTCA benefits society. The thesis goes further in assessing the benefits from normative ethical principles, including using Rawls difference principle as a guide, to evaluate which side of the debate conforms more logically along the teachings of ethical philosophy. At the end it is apparent that the least advantaged members of society do not benefit from this aggressive marketing strategy. It concludes that the pharmaceutical industry makes exaggerated claims of providing the public increased autonomy when, in reality, it is trying to further its own cause of making huge profits for its shareholders. This thesis also reaches the conclusion that the industry uses patients as a means to achieve its own end, that end being unreasonable levels of profit.

Sometimes relatives have taken me on one side and told me they cannot bear it any more:"Isn't there something you can do to end it all?"More often requests for euthanasia have come from those who are ill. I remember visiting a man with lung cancer. He asked his wife to leave the room. As she closed the door he leaned over and grabbed my arm. "I want to die", he said. "Please can you give me something." He felt a burden on his wife and wanted euthanasia for himself .

Often in their duty, physicians are faced with euthanasia requests of this kind. Death is the inevitable fate of all humans but how we die is an issue of great concern for many of us. Fear of pain, loss of control and being a burden to our loved ones are common issues surrounding dying and death of patients. This has led to varying circumstances of patients’ death, and of a significant remark, the involvement of physicians in bringing about these deaths through an act of euthanasia. Euthanasia involves the intentional killing of a patient by the direct intervention of a physician (or another party) ostensibly for the good of the patient, and the most common form that this comes is through lethal injection. The ethics of euthanasia and of a physicians’ involvement have been a contentious issue from the beginnings of medicine. This for the most part is as a result that the ethical code of physicians has long been based in part on the Hippocratic Oath, which requires physicians to “do no harm”. Thus, the focus of this work will be to look into the role of the physician in ending a patient’s life through the act of euthanasia. Although necessary but not a central point of this work to merely develop arguments for and against the justification of euthanasia and a physician’s involvement in the act, but to critically view the role played by physicians in ending the life of patients through euthanasia in contrast with their medical obligation. The issue of euthanasia raises ethical questions for physicians. Is it morally right or wrong for a physician to end the life of his or her patient? And this therefore will be the focus of this work.

The development of applied ethics in recent decades has had great significance for philosophy and society. In this article, I try to characterise this field of philosophical inquiry. I also discuss the relation of applied ethics to social policy and to professional ethics. In the first part, I address the following questions:

1. What is applied ethics?
2. When and why did applied ethics appear?
3. How do we engage in applied ethics? What are the methods?

In the second part of the article, I introduce professional ethics. What is professional ethics, and how can one distinguish professional ethics from applied ethics? I argue that the moral content of professional ethics is a result of professional relations. I also argue that professional ethics best can be understood as a type of virtue ethics.

This publication contains presentations from the workshop “Identity and Pluralism” held at Linköping University in Sweden in June 2008.

¨The first article by Reevany Bustami, Ellisha Nasruddin and Sarmila Md Sum offers a critique of the ‘diversity and inclusion’ discussions in the present CSR discourse. In doing so, it seeks to expand the parameters of diversity to include the broader community as well as the supply chain networks within which companies exist. It also examines the issues of diversity and pluralism within the context of multi religious and multi ethnic Malaysian society as well as the continuing debates of affirmative action originated from Malaysia’s New Economic Policy (NEP).

In their essay on pluralism in Malaysian higher education Ellisha Nasruddin, Reevany Bustami and Ng Sen Fa discuss: 1) key future trends/alternatives within higher education and their cross-impacts; 2) how these trends/alternatives may create undesirable or desirable impact on ethnic pluralism; and 3) roadmap(s) for transformation within higher education vis-a-vis ethnic pluralism.

What is the role of Christian churches in Malaysia? Göran Wiking discusses the isolationist characteristics inherent in some Malaysian churches and denominations. Secondly, a brief analysis of the phenomenon is attempted: is this a genuine or just a perceived impediment to national integration? Are there in fact indicators to the contrary, whereby a certain degree of ethnic isolation can serve to strengthen identity and foster more wholesome members of the society at large?

Göran Collste discusses one aspect of Malaysian political pluralism; the policy of affirmative action. Affirmative action is favouring Malays and to be Muslim is one of the requirements for being beneficiary of affirmative action. He points at some problems for the policy of affirmative action in a time with increased religious tensions and an increased emphasis on religious affiliation as identity marker.

What are the conditions for a real dialogue between members of different ethnic and religious groups? Peter Gan argues that openness to transformation by the other is not strictly speaking an ethic of reducing the other to the self. Rather, it is an orientation that is predicated upon a symmetric self-other relation. In exploring this form of openness, the author attempts to unravel the intricacies embedded within the dialogic process which permeates interethnic, particularly interreligious relations.

The concept “secular state” is nowadays often used in both everyday discourse and scholarly debate. Often it comes with normative connotations; that the democratic state should be secular. However, the exact meaning of the concept is not clear. In his essay Marcus Agnafors examines different meanings of the concept “secular state”. He also discusses some arguments commonly presented in support of the idea that the state should, in some sense, be secular.

Finally, Anne-Christine Hornborg’s essay deals with the struggle for identity by an Indian tribe in Canada. She discusses the impact of the so called residential school on contemporary Mi’kmaq life worlds and identities, drawing on interviews from fieldworks conducted in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

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Globalisation involves both promising potentials and risks. It has the potential – through the spread of human rights, the migration of people and ideas, and the integration of diverse economies - to improve human wellbeing and enhance the protection of human rights worldwide. But globalisation also incurs risks: global environmental risks (such as global warming), the creation of new centres of power with limited legitimacy, a 'race to the bottom' regarding workers' safety and rights, risky journeys of thousands of migrants and not least growing global inequalities. Globalisation, therefore, is a key factor for today's discussions of justice.

As globalisation connects people, it also raises associated responsibilities between them. Until recently, the interest in justice among political philosophers and social ethicists was mainly focused on the nation state. However, this is no longer feasible. Since economic globalisation affects how wealth and power are distributed globally it has become indispensable to discuss social ethics in a global context and to develop principles of global justice. Global justice, therefore, entails an assessment of the benefits and burdens of the structural relations and institutional arrangements that constitute and govern globalisation

The academic discussion of global justice is vibrant and expanding. In my introduction I provide an overview of the discussions on global poverty, justice, cosmopolitanism and statism, migration, the capability approach and different dimensions of global justice.

This publication contains presentations from the workshop “Identity and Pluralism” held at Linköping University in Sweden in June 2008.

¨The first article by Reevany Bustami, Ellisha Nasruddin and Sarmila Md Sum offers a critique of the ‘diversity and inclusion’ discussions in the present CSR discourse. In doing so, it seeks to expand the parameters of diversity to include the broader community as well as the supply chain networks within which companies exist. It also examines the issues of diversity and pluralism within the context of multi religious and multi ethnic Malaysian society as well as the continuing debates of affirmative action originated from Malaysia’s New Economic Policy (NEP).

In their essay on pluralism in Malaysian higher education Ellisha Nasruddin, Reevany Bustami and Ng Sen Fa discuss: 1) key future trends/alternatives within higher education and their cross-impacts; 2) how these trends/alternatives may create undesirable or desirable impact on ethnic pluralism; and 3) roadmap(s) for transformation within higher education vis-a-vis ethnic pluralism.

What is the role of Christian churches in Malaysia? Göran Wiking discusses the isolationist characteristics inherent in some Malaysian churches and denominations. Secondly, a brief analysis of the phenomenon is attempted: is this a genuine or just a perceived impediment to national integration? Are there in fact indicators to the contrary, whereby a certain degree of ethnic isolation can serve to strengthen identity and foster more wholesome members of the society at large?

Göran Collste discusses one aspect of Malaysian political pluralism; the policy of affirmative action. Affirmative action is favouring Malays and to be Muslim is one of the requirements for being beneficiary of affirmative action. He points at some problems for the policy of affirmative action in a time with increased religious tensions and an increased emphasis on religious affiliation as identity marker.

What are the conditions for a real dialogue between members of different ethnic and religious groups? Peter Gan argues that openness to transformation by the other is not strictly speaking an ethic of reducing the other to the self. Rather, it is an orientation that is predicated upon a symmetric self-other relation. In exploring this form of openness, the author attempts to unravel the intricacies embedded within the dialogic process which permeates interethnic, particularly interreligious relations.

The concept “secular state” is nowadays often used in both everyday discourse and scholarly debate. Often it comes with normative connotations; that the democratic state should be secular. However, the exact meaning of the concept is not clear. In his essay Marcus Agnafors examines different meanings of the concept “secular state”. He also discusses some arguments commonly presented in support of the idea that the state should, in some sense, be secular.

Finally, Anne-Christine Hornborg’s essay deals with the struggle for identity by an Indian tribe in Canada. She discusses the impact of the so called residential school on contemporary Mi’kmaq life worlds and identities, drawing on interviews from fieldworks conducted in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

This volume contains a selection of papers that were originally presented at the International Conference on “Rethinking Realities, Reimagining Pluralism: Future Landscapes of Pluralism for Democratic Societies” held on 14-15 December 2010 at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysiar (UKM), Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. This conference was jointly organised by the Institute of Ethnic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, CSR, Philanthropy and Transdisciplinary Action Group (CPTAG),Universiti Sains Malaysia and Linköping University, Sweden. It was also the final conference of the research project “Possibilities of Religious Pluralism”, a joint project involving researchers from Sweden and Malaysia and funded by SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency).

The papers in this volume have been revised and updated for purposes of publication. This publication would not have been possible without the encouragement, help and support of several people and parties. I would like to record my heartfelt thanks to the researchers involved in the joint research on “Possibilities of Religious Pluralism” and on which some of the papers in this volume are based. They are Reevany Bustami, Ellisha Nasruddin and Peter Gan from Malaysia and Edgar Almén, Annika Rabo and Hans Ingvar Roth from Sweden. I also thank Monica Påhlsson at the Centre for Applied Ethics, Linkoping University, for editorial assistance. Last but not least I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to Distinguished Professor Datuk Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, Founding Director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies and Professor Dato’ Sharifah Zaleha Syed Hassan, Principal Research Fellow of the Institute of Ethnic Studies for ensuring the speedy publication of this book.

Editor

November 2011

Just war theory has always been a matter of controversy in the Christian tradition. How could war possibly be just according to a belief based on the teaching of ‘the Prince of Peace’? In the history of Christianity, one finds on the one side radical Christians arguing for pacifism, and on the other Church Fathers, bishops and theologians who elaborate a doctrine of just war.

Inledning till etiken är en sedan många år mycket uppskattad introduktion till etiskt tänkande. Boken utkommer nu i en tredje, uppdaterad upplaga. Här presenteras på ett inspirerande sätt grunderna för etisk argumentation och förhållandet mellan etik och religion. Vad utmärker en rätt handling? Normativa etiska teorier som utilitarism, pliktetik och kontrakts- och rättighetsteorier ger olika svar, och de analyseras i boken. Vidare behandlas etiken inom kristendom, islam och buddhism, liksom nyare riktningar som kommunitarism och feminism. I boken diskuteras aktuella frågor inom tillämpad etik och yrkesetik. Texten innehåller en rad exempel på moraliska problem som stimulerar läsaren till egna reflektioner. I denna reviderade utgåva behandlas dessutom yrkesetiken mera ingående.

Migration from former colonies to former colonial powers represents a large part of the 20th century migration. The question discussed in this article is if a generous immigration policy on behalf of persons from former colonies is an appropriate means for the European nations and former colonial powers to compensate for colonial injustices.

Migration from former colonies to former colonial powers represents a large part of the 20th century migration. The question discussed in this article is if a generous immigration policy on behalf of persons from former colonies is an appropriate means for the European nations and former colonial powers to compensate for colonial injustices.

Technological developments in the life sciences confront us with new facets of a Faustian seduction. Are we „playing God“ more and more, as claimed by critical authors of modernity? Achievements in genetic research produce ethical dilemmas which need to be the subject of reflection and debate in modern societies. Denial of ambivalences that ethical dilemmas arouse constitutes a threat to societies as well as to individuals. The book presents a compilation of some of the results of the interdisciplinary European study “Ethical Dilemmas Due to Prenatal and Genetic Diagnostics” (EDIG), which investigated some of these dilemmas in detail in a field which is particularly challenging: prenatal diagnosis. When results from prenatal diagnosis show fetal abnormalities, women and their partners are confronted with ethical dilemmas regarding: the right to know and the right not to know; decision-making about the remainder of the pregnancy and the desire for a healthy child; responsibility for the unborn child, for its well-being and possible suffering; life and death. This book provides answers from an ethical, psychoanalytical and medical viewpoint.

August 23-26 2012 Societas Ethica, the European Society for Research in Ethics held its 49th annual conference. The conference theme was “Ethics and Migration” and the setting the Romanian city Sibiu in Transylvania. The site for the conference mirrored the theme. Transylvania has during the centuries been a place for waves of migration, for example, already in the 12th Century it received many German immigrants. It is also today a home for hundreds of thousands of Roma people.

Migration is so far a neglected issue within applied ethics. This is surprising due to both the seriousness of the issue and the ethical dilemmas it poses. With this conference the Societas Ethica, wished to bolster the ethical discussion on migration. The conference channels illustrated the range of ethical issues that migration raises:

Many people migrate from poverty and oppression but are stopped at the borders of the rich nations in Europe and America; what are their obligations towards the migrants? How is migration related to global justice?

Migrants and refugees are vulnerable. They have lost their communities and citizenships. What are the rights of migrants and refugees? Who is obliged to protect their rights?

Fortress Europe has unfortunately become a reality. With surveillance, fences and barbwire Europe tries to keep the migrants at a distance. But, what are the moral obligations of the individual European nations and of the European Union? What do we owe them?

Immigrants who have successfully entered Europe are often met with hostility and end up in segregated communities. What are the ethical challenges of segregation and conflicts based on religion and ethnicity?

The unknown person, the different, the Other, is often despised and persecuted. European history shows ample of evidence of this fact. How should minorities, like for example the Roma people, be respected and included by the majority populations and by the states?

The first key note speech was held by Dr Gernot Haupt, Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt over the theme “Antigypsism and migration”. Haupt showed with plenty of examples how the Roma people in Europe have been victims of constant policies of exclusion; from repression to extermination culminating in the Holocaust in the 1930s and 1940s. Haupt expressed critique of the present attitude of the majority in societies with Roma minorities. Their message is; it is always they, the Roma, who must change, not we!

Dr Matthew Gibney from Oxford University addressed the topic “Refugees and justice between states”. He noticed that presently the majority of the world’s refugees go to neighboring poor countries and hence that the refugee situation exacerbate the global inequalities. How can this change? Are not for example nations responsible for creating massive streams of refugees, like the United States after the attack on Iraq in 2003, obliged to host the resulting refugees?

Dr Michelle Becka from University of Frankfurt am Main talked about “Ethics on the border. Towards a theological horizon in the discourse of migration”. She emphasized that being a stranger is an important theme in the biblical tradition; migrants are in focus for theological ethics. When the humanity of migrants is reduced due to oppression and segregation it is crucial for theological ethics to emphasize the need for solidarity.

In the last keynote speech Dr Oliver Bakewell from Oxford University talked over the theme “The relationships between migration and human development”. His lecture focused on the potential positive effects of migration for development through Diasporas communities with links to their homelands, remittances, i.e. the financial support that immigrants send back to their home countries, etc.

More than 40 participants, among them many young scholars from all over Europe but also from India, the United States, Hong Kong and Australia, presented high quality paper. As the only European society open for scholars in moral philosophy, theological ethics and applied ethics, Societas Ethica has a great potential to influence and stimulate the ethical discussions in Europe.

The discussion of global justice has mainly focused on global distributive justice. This article argues for global rectificatory justice, mainly by former colonial states in favor of former colonized peoples. The argument depends on the following premises: (1) there is a moral obligation to rectify the consequences of wrongful acts; (2) colonialism was on the whole harmful for the colonies; (3) the present unjust global structure was constituted by colonialism; and (4) the obligation of rectificatory justice is trans-generational so long as there are at present identifiable beneficiaries and victims of past injustice. Although it is too demanding to ask for full compensation for 450 years of colonialism, the former colonial powers can in different ways and to the best of their efforts contribute to change the present inequalities that are the legacy of history. A theory of global rectificatory justice is complementary to a theory of global distributive justice and enables us to develop a fuller understanding of the meaning of global justice.

SOCIAL JUSTICE, HEALTH AND POVERTY IN UGANDA

John Barugahare

Injustice in Uganda manifests in many ways. One most serious, yet least discussed social injustice, is inequity in Health. Although there are two equally important aims of health systems – efficiency and equity, in Uganda too much focus has been on ensuring efficiency and as a consequence concerns of equity have been relegated. Ultimately, health policy in Uganda has disproportionately negatively affected the poor’s livelihoods in general and the trend seems to be worsening by day. Even though it is possible to borrow a leaf from the Western literature on how to design a good health policy, low income countries like Uganda have special features that render the extrapolation of the Western input good but not enough. In particular, these special features are the level of resource constraints, poverty and the financing mechanism of health care services. These three have very serious implications for equity in health. In general, there is a lot of injustice in the Uganda health care and this has been mainly due to poverty levels and the financing mechanism which the system relies on. Hence, there is an urgent need to concentrate on a discussion of injustice in health because health enhances people’s functionings and is a mandatory condition for people’s enjoyment of other life opportunities to the extent that if a section of a society is made to suffer injustice in health, this will translate into injustice in all the dimensions of their lives. This is something that fair‐minded people cannot afford to live with for long. Therefore, it is important in this work to illustrate how the above three special features play to cause and sustain inequity in Uganda health care system and to  suggest the starting point to overcoming this injustice, not only in Uganda but as a general trend in health policy analysis.

THE POLITICS OF RESTORING ETHICS AND THE CHALLENGE OF PATRIOTISM IN SERVICE DELIVERY IN UGANDA’S PUBLIC SERVICE

Dickson Kanakulya

Reports indicate that there is an erosion of professionalism and ethics across most of the East African public service systems and this is limiting the efficient service delivery and negatively impacts on social justice. Because of this challenge many approaches are being applied to mitigate it, such as the institutional, legal, cultural and the political. This paper discusses the political approach and particularly problematizes the political push for patriotism in Uganda. Most of the critique and analysis was done while carrying out research and consultancy with Makerere Centre for Applied Ethics (MACAE) in selected districts in Uganda under the project “Pro‐poor Integrity” (PPI) funded by Tiri and DFID. The paper argues that the government’s policy of patriotism is more of politicking than real improvement of service delivery to the people. Political interference in public service has engendered a culture of impunity and increased unethical conduct among ‘politically‐connected’ civil servants right from the grass root service to the top administration, The paper argues that if ethics in Uganda’s public administration is to improve politicians ought  to be divorce party‐biased ideology from the patriotism discourse such that it can appeal to a wider spectrum of Ugandans.

PERSISTENT COLONIAL COERCION IN CONTEMPORARY UGANDA: FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL INJUSTICES IN THE COUNTRY

Gervase Tusabe

Since 1962, all Uganda’s major centres of power i.e., political, economic and military have always been dominated by a chosen few, and the attendant wealth that goes with such powers has always been disproportionately enjoyed in favour of these chosen few when a considerable large number of people in the country are living under the weight of abject poverty.

The major argument advanced in this paper is that the fundamental cause of this experience of injustice in Uganda is the persistent domestic colonial mode of political administration that is managed by a particular closed group of individuals who more or less conspired to work together to promote their self‐centred interests at the cost of deliberately ignoring the legitimate interests of the Ugandans who are outside their group.

STRUCTURAL INJUSTICES AND THE ETHICS OF ENGENDERING POVERTY ERADICATION POLICIES IN UGANDA

Michael George Kizito

Since time immemorial, poverty reduction interventions in Sub‐Saharan Africa like everywhere in the South, have focused on the individual as the basic ingredient of a moral society (ethical individualism). According to this perspective, in order to lift human persons out of poverty, it is imperative to integrate poor persons into poverty eradication interventions irrespective of sex, social status and gender. Scholars and institutions that subscribed to this conception of poverty thought that individuals were poor because of personal weaknesses (case poverty).This perspective has been greatly challenged due to the upsurge of gender and human rights scholarship in the 20th century. Gender scholars have painstakingly argued that in order to understand poverty, we need to look at society (ethical collectivism). They have rejected the Women in Development(WID) discourse that aims at integrating women into the development process in favour of the Gender and Development(GAD) approach to development and poverty reduction that aims at confronting power relations between men and women (empowerment).This GAD perspective looks at poverty in terms of the powerlessness speared head by prevailing structures in society (structural poverty) and hence the need to empower vulnerable persons such as women to challenge structures and strictures of oppression. The International Monetary fund (IMF) and World Bank as vehement promoters of economism in Sub‐Saharan Africa for decades have urged governments to include the perspectives of the poor in poverty polices through what they call participatory poverty assessments (PPAs). Despite its deceptive appearance, this PPAs stance of the IMF and World Bank tacitly looks at poverty as a case and not structural issue and that is why Uganda’s ambitious poverty reduction policy though greatly informed by Participatory Poverty Assessments greatly ignores structures and strictures that render women vulnerable to poverty. This paper critically assesses the obliviousness of Uganda’s Agricultural poverty policy to structures and how this has militated on the gender poverty production in Uganda. The paper contends that in order to realise engendered poverty eradication in Uganda, it is pertinent for the agricultural policy to ultimately make paradigm shift from focusing on the individual as the basic ingredient of a moral society (ethical individualism) to confronting structures and strictures that disempower and vulnerablelise individual moral agents (ethical collectivism).

The proceedings from the Societas Ethica’s annual conference 2015 looks different than previous years. We do not publish the full papers this year. The reason for this change is that less and less papers have been submitted the last years due to the fact that most academic journals are hesitant to publish articles that already have been published in conference proceedings. So, in order to be able to mirror the conferences, the board of Societas Ethica decided that it is better that the conference proceedings contain the paper abstracts.

The proceedings contain three parts; first, the thematic introduction by the President, then the key note speeches and the responses to the key notes and finally, the conference paper abstracts.

The TRIPS-agreement has been widely discussed. Critics have critisised it for favouring property rights at the cost of public health in AIDS-stricken development countries. In this article the conflict between on the one hand Intellectual Property Rights and on the other a right to subsistence is analysed with the help of a method for specification. The rationalization of TRIPS and its amendments raises two questions for ethics, one normative and one meta-ethical. Firstly, which right has priority: the right to property or the right to subsistence? Secondly, how can conflicting rights be reconciled in a coherent ethical system. The aim of the article is to answer these two questions and in order to do that the method of specification developed by the philosopher Henry Richardson is applied. The result is a specified norm applicable for this and similar kind of rights conflicts.

Etik är ett brett och angeläget ämne som engagerar forskare inom teologin, filosofin och samhällsdisciplinerna. Inte minst under Professor Carl-Henric Grenholms tid som ämnesföreträdare har etikforskningen i Uppsala haft en sådan bredd. Som en replik på Carl-Henric Grenholms bestående insatser har ett flertal forskare från Europa och USA bidragit med artiklar till denna hyllningsskrift.

Tre områden har fått illustrera hans mångåriga engagemang som forskare och lärare: etisk teori, socialetik samt teologi och etik. Här analyseras frågor om religion och moral, människovärde, praktiskt förnuft, tolerans, sexualitet och lagring av kärnavfall. Antologin rymmer ett brett spektrum av artiklar skrivna med varje forskareseget temperament och stil. De bildar tillsammans ett smakprov på de områden som under några decennier präglat Carl-Henric Grenholms forskning.

Emergent technologies are pushing the boundaries of how both qualitative and quantitative researchers practice their craft, and it has become clear these changes are dramatically altering research design, from the questions researchers ask and the ways they collect data, to what they even consider data.  Gathering a broad range of new developments in one place, The Handbook of Emergent Technologies in Social Research offers comprehensive, up-to-date thinking on technological innovations. In addition to addressing how to effectively apply new technologies-such as the internet, mobile technologies, geospatial technologies (GPS), and the incorporation of computer-assisted software programs (CAQDAS) to qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches to research projects-many chapters provide in-depth examples of practices within both disciplinary and interdisciplinary environments and outside the academic world in multi-media laboratories and research institutes. Not only an authoritative view of cutting-edge technologies and their applications, the Handbook examines the costs and benefits of utilizing new technologies on the research process, the potential misuse of these techniques for methods practices, and the ethical and moral dimensions of emergent technologies, especially with regard to issues of surveillance and privacy. The Handbook of Emergent Technologies in Social Research is an essential resource for research methods courses in various fields, including the social sciences, education, communications, computer science, and health services, and an indispensable guide for social researchers looking to incorporate emerging technologies into their methods and practice.

This volume contains a selection of papers that were originally presented at the International Conference on “Rethinking Realities, Reimagining Pluralism: Future Landscapes of Pluralism for Democratic Societies” held on 14-15 December 2010 at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysiar (UKM), Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. This conference was jointly organised by the Institute of Ethnic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, CSR, Philanthropy and Transdisciplinary Action Group (CPTAG),Universiti Sains Malaysia and Linköping University, Sweden. It was also the final conference of the research project “Possibilities of Religious Pluralism”, a joint project involving researchers from Sweden and Malaysia and funded by SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency).