Europe's Moral House: In Order

Apropos of my Groningen Protocol post from Sunday: the EU high court has upheld a German ban on the laser tag game on the grounds that the simulated killing involved is an affront to human dignity:

EU upholds laser tag ban
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Union's top court has backed a German ban on laser tag games in which players simulate killing each other in a maze.

"The affront to human dignity posed by that activity justifies a restriction on the freedom to provide services," the European Court of Justice ruled.

Police in the German city of Bonn in 1994 had prohibited a German company, Omega Spielhallen- und Automatenaustellungs-GmbH, from operating a Laserdrome, a game developed and marketed by a British supplier.

German authorities argued that "acts of simulated homicide and the ensuing trivialization of violence" violated the principle of human dignity enshrined in the German constitution.

The owners appealed to Germany's federal administrative court, which sought a ruling from the European court in Luxembourg as to whether the ban contravened the freedom to provide services under EU law.

The court ruled that such bans "are not excluded" in Germany simply because another EU country, in this case Britain, allows the game.

So, for those keeping score at home: laser tag - an affront to human dignity; involuntary euthanasia of infants - peachy keen.