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Chapter 4 - Confrontations between Ethics and Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2025

Eric Kamenjašević
Eric Kamenjašević
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Belgium
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Summary

ABSTRACT

This chapter begins by differentiating among several ways of applying ethics by giving some tangible and practical examples. It also explains how ethics can be used for lawmaking and policymaking purposes in the context of human (mood) enhancement technology. The analysis continues to examine the interplay between ethics and the law, highlighting how many ethical principles are intertwined with legal provisions stemming from human rights instruments, thus revealing where laws align or diverge from ethical norms. Finally, this chapter evaluates whether current legislation dealing with fundamental rights is sufficient for addressing issues associated with human (mood) enhancement technology, suggesting areas for needed reinterpretations, expansion, or relaxation to better align legal practices with ethical standards.

ETHICS VERSUS LAW OR ETHICS AND LAW ?

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

572. Chapter 2 mapped and analysed arguments oft en raised in the ethics debate concerning human (mood) enhancement technologies. As outlined there, some of them cannot be meaningfully used in the form in which they are commonly presented for the legislative debate concerning these technologies based on the principle of neutrality of law. These are mostly the arguments with strong religious and ideological inklings (such as unnaturalness, playing god, cheating and similar arguments), as well as arguments with the problem of rhetorical types, whereas the object of criticism they are trying to address is left ambiguous, vague, imprecise, or simply unclear (these are considered to be the meta-arguments or arguments with methodological issues).

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Type
Chapter
Information
Mood Enhancement Technology
Ethical and Legal Challenges
 , pp. 189 - 196
Publisher: Intersentia
Print publication year: 2025

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