“Ethical Minefields” and the Voice of Common Sense: A Discussion with Julian Savulescu

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Published: Oct 31, 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.19712
Keywords:
Julian Savulescu Bioethics practical ethics moral enhancement procreative beneficence autonomy
Julian Savulescu
University of Oxford
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1691-6403
Evangelos D. Protopapadakis
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7502-3117
Abstract
Theoretical ethics includes both metaethics (the meaning of moral terms) and normative ethics (ethical theories and principles). Practical ethics involves making decisions about every day real ethical problems, like decisions about euthanasia, what we should eat, climate change, treatment of animals, and how we should live. It utilizes ethical theories, like utilitarianism and Kantianism, and principles, but more broadly a process of reflective equilibrium and consistency to decide how to act and be.
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Author Biographies
Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford
Prof. J. Savulescu (BMedSci, MB, BS, PhD), Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, Director of Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics; Director, Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities; Director, Institute for Science and Ethics, Oxford Martin School, Visiting Professorial Fellow in Biomedical Ethics at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, and Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law at Melbourne University. Julian Savulescu is a recognised world leader in the field of practical and medical ethics, specialising in the ethics of new and emerging technologies. He is author of over 405 publications, and recently completed an extended tenure as editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Evangelos D. Protopapadakis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
I was born in Athens in 1972. I studied philosophy, pedagogy and psychology at the University of Athens, wherefrom I obtained my B.Phil in 1997. I completed my PhD Thesis in 2002 (“The Idea of Euthanasia in Contemporary Bioethics”) under the supervision of Prof. T. N. Pelegrinis. I have been teaching at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens since 2004 (first as appointed and then as adjunct lecturer). In 2009 I became a Lecturer in Applied Ethics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (School of Philosophy / Faculty of Philosophy, Pedagogy, Psychology / Department of Philosophy), and in 2014 I was elected Assistant Professor in the same field. Since 2015 I am the Head of the Greek Unit of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics (Haifa). I am also the Director of the UoA Applied Philosophy Research Laboratory and a board member of the UoA Ethics and Deontology Committee, as well as of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute Bioethics Committee. I have authored four books in Greek, edited two in English, co-edited four in Greek and one in Serbian. See my full cv and list of publications in English and in Greek.
References
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Carter, J. Adam, and Emma C. Gordon. “On Cognitive and Moral Enhancement: A Reply to Savulescu and Persson”. Bioethics 28, no. 1 (2014): 153-161.
Harris, John. “Moral Enhancement and Freedom”. Bioethics 25, no. 2 (2011): 102-111.
Kahane, Guy, and Julian Savulescu. “The Welfarist Account of Disability”. In Disability and Disadvantage, edited by A. Cureton and K. Brownlee, 14-53. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Maslen, Hannah, Carin Hunt, and Julian Savulescu. ‘“No Pain, No Praise?’: Praiseworthiness and Motivational Enhancement”. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, (forthcoming).
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, edited by Rolf Peter Horstmann and Judith Norman, translated by Judith Norman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Persson, Ingmar, and Julian Savulescu. Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Savulescu, Julian, and Guy Kahane. “Understanding Procreative Beneficence”. In The Oxford Handbook of Reproductive Ethics, edited by Leslie Francis, 592-621. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Savulescu, Julian, and Ingmar Persson. “Moral Enhancement, Freedom and the God Machine”. Monist 95, no. 3 (2012): 399-421.
Savulescu, Julian, and Peter Singer. “An Ethical Pathway for Gene Editing”. Bioethics 33, no. 2 (2019): 221-222.
Savulescu, Julian. “Autonomy, the Good Life, and Controversial Choices”. In The Blackwell Guide to Medical Ethics, edited by R. Rhodes, L. P. Francis and A. Silvers, 17-37. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
Savulescu, Julian. “In Defence of Procreative Beneficence”. Journal of Medical Ethics 33, no. 5 (2007): 284-288.
Savulescu, Julian. “Procreative Beneficence: Why We Should Select the Best Children”. Bioethics 15, nos. 5-6 (2001): 413-426.
Savulescu, Julian. “The Fundamental Ethical Flaw in Jiankui He’s Alleged Gene Editing Experiment”. Practical Ethics: Ethics in the News. Published 28 November, 2018. http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2018/11/the-fundamental-ethical-flaw-in-jiankui-hes-alleged-gene-editing-experiment/.
Sparrow, Robert. “Better Living Through Chemistry? A Reply to Savulescu and Persson on ‘Moral Enhancement’”. Journal of Applied Philosophy 31, no. 1 (2014): 23-32.
Wilkinson, Dominic, and Julian Savulescu. “Should We Allow Organ Donation Euthanasia? Alternatives for Maximizing the Number and Quality of Organs for Transplantation”. Bioethics 26, no. 1 (2012): 32-48.
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