Technological advances continue to bestow previously unimagined gifts - the "delete" button tops my list - as well as unimaginable horrors, from video games in which players simulate murder and violence toward women to Internet hunting expeditions in which desk jockeys kill real animals with the push of a button.

Who knew we'd be having such fun?

The hunting game is for real, in concept if not yet in practice, and seems with hindsight to have been inevitable. The brainchild of Texas rancher John Underwood, the original plan was to allow hunters to shoot paper targets via their Internet-connected computers. That plan quickly morphed into a more exotic adventure, allowing shooters to kill real animals.

Live-shot.com, selected by Fortune magazine as the worst technology product of 2004, would allow hunters to monitor animals through a Web browser connected to a video camera that is mounted on a hunting platform, along with a rifle, at Underwood's 330-acre ranch.

From his desk overlooking, say, Lake Eola in Orlando, the hunter can manipulate the camera, panning and zooming in on animals as they come into view. When he's ready, the hunter aims, fires and - voila! Trophy head soon to be delivered.

If ever there were a common cause for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and the NRA (National Rifle Association), live-shot.com would seem made to order. Killing animals with a computer keyboard from a remote location is so stunningly wrong, almost no one is unoffended, including traditional hunters as well as some Texas wildlife officials.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which oversees hunting rules, is investigating how and whether to stop Underwood, who claims he's trying to meet the needs of disabled hunters or others who can't afford a hunting trip. The hitch for officials is that the animals Underwood intends to offer for "harvesting," such as blackbuck antelope, wild hogs and Corsican sheep, aren't regulated under Texas law, which covers only native wildlife.

Moreover, the issue is ethical rather than biological. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is only supposed to regulate on biological grounds. Absent prohibitions against remote hunting, Underwood hopes to have his faux safaris available by next spring.

The ethics of high-tech killing, whether in computer real time or through video simulations, which thus far have escaped government regulation, poses new challenges for those charged with protecting the innocent, as well as for anyone concerned with our fragile humanity.

The physical distancing in both cases also permits an emotional distancing that has observers appropriately concerned. Killing is so easy when you only have to push a button. No bloody muss, no emotional fuss. Continued...