by Julian Savulescu
Toby Ord is a brilliant young Oxford post doc. He has established Giving What We Can. On the website, you can calculate how many lives you could save by giving to the most effective charities he has evaluated. He calculates that even a person on the median salary could save 1350 lives. Here is an example of how Toby calculates the number of lives which could be saved.
by Julian Savulescu
In a paper just released today, Cohen Kadosh and colleagues (Cohen Kadosh et al., Modulating Neuronal Activity Produces Specific and Long-Lasting Changes in Numerical Competence, Current Biology (2010), doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.10.007) described how they increased the numerical ability of normal people by applying an electrical current to a part of the skull. So what? Most of us don’t do that much maths after leaving school and manage just fine.
Read More »Why Bioenhancement of Mathematical Ability Is Ethically Important
by Julian Savulescu
Update: The same misunderstandings are still in evidence, 2 years on (May 2012), for example: ‘Brain circuitry different for women with anorexia, obesity’
Having started to work in the field of neuroethics a couple of years ago, I have become staggered by the misunderstanding of what neuroscience can tell us. The best example is a recent BBC story which goes by the wonderful title “Libido problems: ‘brain not mind‘” .
Recent post from my blog: Imagine that Herman has toxic radioactive waste from his laboratory. He decides to bury it in the ground next to his laboratory, knowing that it will expose the surrounding houses to dangerous radiation. As a result, Gertrude develops cancer some years later and dies at the age of 37. Herman… Read More »Why We Should Criminalise Dangerous Sexual Behaviour
by Julian Savulescu
At the beginning of this debate, I said doping would be a part of the
World Cup. Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest footballer playing today,
will star in the line up for Argentina against Germany in the Quarter
Finals. At the age of 15, Spanish football team Barcelona paid for him
to receive growth hormone to make him taller to "treat growth hormone
deficiency." It was likely this was an example of human enhancement and
doping. He is now 5 foot 7 inches – hardly a midget. Still, people love
to see him play. And it would be a tragedy if he were expelled because
his height was now "unnatural".
Read More »Drugs in sport debate: Proposer’s closing statement
by Lachlan de Crespigny, Thomas Douglas, Mark Textor and Julian Savulescu
Regular calls to limit numbers of abortions are a familiar cry. Yet people are outraged if a friend or family member with a serious complication in much wanted pregnancy reluctantly requests an abortion but encounters resistance. Or when a woman faces a criminal court, as will happen to Tegan Leach next month in Queensland.
Read More »Australians support women’s access to late abortion
by Julian Savulescu
Abortion should be decriminalised. Early abortion should be freely and easily available on request. Late abortion should be freely and easily available at least for those who have a valid justification: significant fetal abnormality, threat to woman’s health or a serious social reason, for example child pregnancy or rape. Family planning, including safe, free and open abortion services, is an essential part of a civilized society.
by Julian Savulescu
Illegal prostitution still occurs in countries where it has been decriminalised; illegal use of dangerous drugs still occurs in countries which have relaxed their bans on recreational drugs. But overall, such societies are better for their tolerance, their focus on harm reduction, compared to absolutist, prohibitionist societies. So, too, for doping.
by Julian Savulescu
Equality is an ideal born of the vice of envy, one of the seven deadly sins. But equality has no intrinsic value and panders to our vicious nature to be envious of others. Levelling down is absurd. And why level up if we can raise everyone, improving all of their lives instead of just some? To reduce people’s envy of others, when their own lives are good and better? That is no reason.
by Julian Savulescu
So far, there has been no debate. I agree entirely with nearly all John William’s points.
The topic is “Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Allowed in Sport.” It is not “All Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Allowed in Sport.” I have argued that some should according to certain criteria, including being consistent with the spirit of that particular sport.
