person:julian savulescu

Ingenious: Robert Sparrow & Julian Savulescu - Issue 39: Sport
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At least 120 athletes at the Rio Olympics were previously suspended for doping, The New York Times reported on Aug. 18. The suspended represented at least 63 of the 205 countries in the 2016 Olympics. When all was swum and run, 31 athletes who had previously been suspended for doping won medals in Rio. Despite the sanctions and drug tests that have been in place in sports organizations for years, cheating remains widespread. The drive for an extra edge is, after all, the whole point of competitive sports. Realizing that drive runs deep, philosopher Julian Savulescu (on the right in the photo above) has long argued that doping should be legal in sports. Legal training like running in high altitudes, he points out, boosts red blood cells in ways no different than EPO, a commonly used (...)

Head to Head: Should We Allow a Doping Free-for-All? - Issue 39: Sport
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You could say the job of the sports fan is not only to cheer but to jeer. Take the Rio Olympics. American sprinter Justin Gatlin, who has been suspended in the past for doping, entered Olympic Stadium before his 100-meter race to resounding boos. Competitors are also a part of the ritual. After winning a gold medal, American swimmer Lilly King wagged her finger to mock her Russian competitor Yulia Efimova, who previously had been suspended for doping. To philosopher Julian Savulescu, the boos and censures ring with, if not outright hypocrisy, short memory spans. “Caffeine is a performance-enhancer,” he says. “It used to be banned and now it’s allowed.” Savulescu, a native Australian, who directs the Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, has been one of the loudest (...)

The Moral Argument for Doping in Sports - Facts So Romantic
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To almost all sports fans, doping in sports is an issue of near-religious importance, says Julian Savulescu. According to the Australian bioethicist and moral philosopher, fans celebrate people of extraordinary physical ability who dedicate themselves to training to perform an athletic feat to perfection—but when they augment their abilities with drugs and enhancers, fans can feel personally wronged as if a crime has been committed against them. Just look at what happened to Lance Armstrong.The United States’ Lance Armstrong celebrates in France on July 22 2004 during that year’s Tour de France, 17. Etappe/Bourg d’Oisans - Le Grand-Bornand.Friedemann Vogel/Bongarts/Getty ImagesTime to wake up and smell the steroids, he says. As director of the Uehrin Centre for Practical Ethics at the (...)

The Philosopher Who Says We Should Play God - Issue 28: 2050
▻http://nautil.us/issue/28/2050/the-philosopher-who-says-we-should-play-god

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Australian bioethicist Julian Savulescu has a knack for provocation. Take human cloning. He says most of us would readily accept it if it benefited us. As for eugenics—creating smarter, stronger, more beautiful babies—he believes we have an ethical obligation to use advanced technology to select the best possible children. A protégé of the philosopher Peter Singer, Savulescu is a prominent moral philosopher at the University of Oxford, where he directs the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. He also edits the Journal of Medical Ethics. Savulescu isn’t shy about stepping onto ethical minefields. He sees nothing wrong with doping to help cyclists climb those steep mountains in the Tour de France. Some elite athletes will always cheat to boost their performance, so instead of trying to (...)