The Philosopher Who Says We Should Play God - Issue 72: Quandary

Australian bioethicist Julian Savulescu has a knack for provocation. 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 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 enforce rules that will be broken, he claims we'd be better off with a system that allows low-dose doping. So does Savulescu just get off being outrageous? "I actually think of myself as the voice of common sense," he says, though he admits to receiving his share of hate mail.