Жулиан Савулеску: Австралиялық философ және биоэтик туралы

Australian philosopher and bioethicist

Julian Savulescu (born 22 December 1963) is an Australian philosopher and bioethicist of Romanian origins. He is Chen Su Lan Centennial Professor in Medical Ethics and director of the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at National University of Singapore. He was previously Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, 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 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), which is ranked as the No.2 journal in bioethics worldwide by Google Scholar Metrics, as of 2022. In addition to his background in applied ethics and philosophy, he also has a background in medicine and neuroscience and completed his MBBS (Hons) and BMedSc at Monash University, graduating top of his class with 18 of 19 final year prizes in Medicine. He edits the Oxford University Press book series, the Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics. He 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.

Savulescu has a Doctoris Honoris Causa 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.

Walter Veit has gone further than Savulescu and argued that because there is no intrinsic moral difference between "creating" and "choosing" a life, eugenics becomes a natural consequence of procreative beneficence. 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.

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. 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. Together with John Harris, Julian was called a leading figure in New eugenics. 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.