# Julian Savulescu

Julian Savulescu (born 1963) is an Australian philosopher and bioethicist. He is Chen Su Lan Centennial Professor in Medical Ethics and Director of the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He is also the Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, and was previously the Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford, Director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, and co-director of the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities. He is a visiting professorial fellow in Biomedical Ethics at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Australia, and distinguished visiting professor in Law at Melbourne University since 2017. He directs the Biomedical Ethics Research Group and is a member of the Centre for Ethics of Pediatric Genomics in Australia. He is a former editor and current board member of the Journal of Medical Ethics (2001–2004 and 2011–2018).

## Career

Savulescu completed his PhD at Monash University, under the supervision of philosopher Peter Singer. His doctoral thesis was on good reasons to die and euthanasia. After graduating, he took a Menzies Foundation postdoctoral scholarship, supervised by Derek Parfit before returning to Australia. He established a group on the ethics of genetics at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Australia. In 2002, he took up the Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics in Oxford. In 2003, he established the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics as Director. He edits the Oxford University Press book series, the Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics.
Savulescu also has a background in medicine and neuroscience and completed his MBBS (Hons) and BMedSc at Monash University.

## Views
### Procreative beneficence

Savulescu coined the term procreative beneficence. He describes it as the moral obligation (rather than mere permission) of parents who can select among potential children to choose those expected to have the best life prospects. For instance through preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and subsequent embryo selection or selective termination. A similar position was defended by John Harris. One argument is that some traits such as memory are "all-purpose means", in the sense of being instrumental in realizing whatever life plans the child may come to have.
Philosopher Walter Veit has argued that if one accepts both procreative beneficence and consequentialism, then a parental obligation for genetic enhancement logically follows, as there is no intrinsic moral difference between selecting and enhancing embryos for welfare-maximizing traits.

#### Reception

The principle of procreative beneficience is controversial. Bioethicist Rebecca Bennett argued against Savulescu's position, contending that not selecting the best offspring harms no one since those potential individuals would otherwise never have existed. She further wrote that the intuitions supporting such a selection merely reflect non-moral preferences rather than genuine moral obligations. Peter Herissone-Kelly argued against this criticism.

### Moral Enhancement

In 2009, Professor Savulescu presented a paper at the "Festival of Dangerous Ideas", held at the Sydney Opera House in October 2009, entitled "Unfit for Life: Genetically Enhance Humanity or Face Extinction", which can be seen on Vimeo. Savulescu argues that humanity is on the brink of disappearing in a metaphorical "Bermuda Triangle" unless humans are willing to undergo "moral enhancement".
Norbert Paulo criticised Savulescu's argument for moral enhancement, arguing that if democratic governments had to morally enhance their populations because the majoritarian population are morally deficient, they could not be legitimate as they manipulated the population's will. Thus in Paulo's view, those advocating large-scale, state-driven and partially mandatory moral enhancement are advocating a non-democratic order.

### Embryonic stem cells

Savulescu also justifies the destruction of embryos and foetuses as a source of organs and tissue for transplantation to adults. In his abstract he argues, "The most publicly justifiable application of human cloning, if there is one at all, is to provide self-compatible cells or tissues for medical use, especially transplantation. Some have argued that this raises no new ethical issues above those raised by any form of embryo experimentation. I argue that this research is less morally problematic than other embryo research. Indeed, it is not merely morally permissible but morally required that we employ cloning to produce embryos or fetuses for the sake of providing cells, tissues or even organs for therapy, followed by abortion of the embryo or fetus." He argues that if it is permissible to destroy foetuses, for social reasons, or no reasons at all, it must be justifiable to destroy them to save lives.
He argues that stem cell research is important enough as to be justifiable even if one conceptualizes the embryo as a person.

### Abortion debate

Further, as editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics, he published, in 2012, an article by two Italian academics which stated that a new-born baby is effectively no different from a foetus, is not a "person" and, morally, could be killed at the decision of the parents etc. This article was published as part of a special double issue, "Abortion, Infanticide, and Allowing Babies to Die". The double issue included articles by Peter Singer, Michael Tooley, Jeff McMahan, C. A. J. Coady, Leslie Francis, John Finnis, and others. In an editorial, Savulescu wrote: "The Journal aims in this issue to promote further and more extensive rational debate concerning this controversial and important topic by providing a range of arguments from a variety of perspectives. We have tried to be as inclusive as possible and provided a double issue to include as many as possible of the submissions we received. Infanticide is an important issue and one worthy of scholarly attention because it touches on an area of concern that few societies have had the courage to tackle honestly and openly: euthanasia. We hope that the papers in this issue will stimulate ethical reflection on practices of euthanasia that are occurring and its proper justification and limits." He also stated, "I am strongly opposed to the legalisation of infanticide along the lines discussed by Giubilini and Minerva."

### Other positions

Along with neuroethicist Guy Kahane, Savulescu's article "Brain Damage and the Moral Significance of Consciousness" appears to be the first mainstream publication to argue that increased evidence of consciousness in patients diagnosed with being in persistent vegetative state actually supports withdrawing or withholding care.

## Other information

He has co-authored two books: Medical Ethics and Law: The Core Curriculum with Tony Hope and Judith Hendrick and Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement (published by Oxford University Press) with Ingmar Persson.
Savulescu is a member of the board of directors executive committee of the International Neuroethics Society.
He has also edited the books Der neue Mensch? Enhancement und Genetik (together with Nikolaus Knoepffler), Human Enhancement (together with Nick Bostrom), Enhancing Human Capacities, The Ethics of Human Enhancement. He was also a co-author of Love Is the Drug: The Chemical Future of Our Relationships addressing the future potential widespread use of aphrodisiacs. In it, he argued, that certain forms of medications can be ethically consumed as a "helpful complement" in relationships. Both to fall in love, and, to fall out of it.

## Awards

In 2009, Savulescu was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award by Monash University. In the same year, he was also announced as the winner in the Thinking category of The Australian newspaper's Emerging Leaders Awards.
Savulescu has a Honorary degree from the University of Bucharest (2014). He was awarded the 'Thinker' Award in the top 100 Australian Future Leaders (2009), and is a Monash University Distinguished Alumni (2009). He was ASMR Gold Medalist (2005).
In 2018, Savulescu and a team of co-authors were awarded the Daniel M. Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize. This prize recognises the author of an article or book chapter judged to provide the most innovative theoretical contribution to social/personality psychology within a given year. He was also shortlisted for the AHRC Medal for Leadership in Medical Humanities in 2018. He was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2023.