Brian D Earp
Biographic Data
| ID | 461775 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brian D Earp |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brian D |
| FAMILY NAME | Earp |
| SIGNATURE | EARP B D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9691-2888 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 81 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 62 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 81 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Who is a man and who is a woman? Implications of the UK Supreme Court decision
On 16 April 2025, the Supreme Court of the UK ruled that when interpreting the UK’s Equality Act (2010)—the Act of the UK Parliament that details protections against unlawful discrimination—the terms ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ pick out ‘biological sex’ (defined in the Court’s ruling as ‘the sex of a person at birth’) and not also ‘certificated sex’ (defined in the Court’s ruling as ‘the sex attained by the acquisition of a Gender Recognition Certif…
When to create embryos or organoids for research
The development of brain organoids and use of human embryonic neural structures for research each raise distinct ethical considerations that require careful analysis. We propose that rather than attempting to resolve longstanding debates about embryonic moral status, a more productive approach is to examine how different positions on this fundamental question lead to distinct conclusions about appropriate research strategies. For those who ground…
AI-assisted consent in paediatric medicine: Ethical implications of using large language models to support decision-making
Obtaining informed consent in paediatrics is an essential yet ethically complex aspect of clinical practice. Children have varying levels of autonomy and understanding based on their age and developmental maturity, with parents traditionally playing a central role in decision-making. However, there is increasing recognition of children’s evolving capacities and their right to be involved in care decisions, raising questions about facilitating mea…
A qualitative study of true self judgments, epistemic access, and medical decision-making
BACKGROUND: (2024) found that US participants were more likely to follow a medical treatment preference-expressed after substantial cognitive decline-of a third person rather than their own future self. This correlated with a greater tendency to see the third person as still their true self. We hypothesised that the greater epistemic access one has to one's own true self as opposed to others might drive this difference. METHODS: 's study were cod…
Normalising transparency: An argument for requiring generative AI use declarations in all manuscripts—with a call for commentaries
i We adopt the definition used by Nature portfolio journals: 'AI-assisted improvements to human-generated texts for readability and style, and to ensure that the texts are free of errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation and tone.These AI-assisted improvements may include wording and formatting changes to the texts, but do not include generative editorial work and autonomous content creation'. 18 As Hosseini and colleagues 16 note, using the shor…
Data for dollars? The ethics of trading African health data for American investment: Lessons from the US–Kenya deal
Medical ethics and categorisation
Ethics of AI in medicine: How smarter systems lead to tougher judgments
Chat-IRB for LMICs: An opportunity for ethics review capacity-building and protection against ethics dumping, IRB shopping, and other exploitative research practices—a response to Moodley et al
Compared with high-income countries (HICs), developing ‘Chat-IRB’—application-specific large language models for research ethics review—may have different implications for resource-constrained Research Ethics Committees or Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While certain concerns raised by Moodley, Malpani, and Reis—including resource challenges, reviewing research conducted in LMICs, and automation bi…
Digital Doppelgängers, Human Relationships, and Practical Identity
In this paper, we examine the potential effects of relationships with Large Language Model (LLM)‐based digital doppelgängers (DDs) on users' values, concerns, and interests, that is, on their practical identity. DDs are artificially intelligent conversational agents trained on individuals' data to replicate their speech patterns, mannerisms, and personality traits. We start by showing that practical identity is largely defined by the relationship…
Is Consent-GPT valid? Public attitudes to generative AI use in surgical consent
Healthcare systems often delegate surgical consent-seeking to members of the treating team other than the surgeon (e.g., junior doctors in the UK and Australia). Yet, little is known about public attitudes toward this practice compared to emerging AI-supported options. This first large-scale empirical study examines how laypeople evaluate the validity and liability risks of using an AI-supported surgical consent system ( Consent-GPT ). We randoml…
On Whether Sex Is Binary
The calculator analogy: Epistemic virtues for using LLMs
Like the arrival of calculators in 1970s classrooms, large language models (LLMs) provoke both fears of intellectual deskilling and hopes of more efficient learning. In this paper we analyze the calculator analogy, arguing that while it is a useful starting point to understand the potential impact of LLMs in education, it is ultimately insufficient. We show where the analogy holds and, just as importantly, where its limitations reveal the unique …
Augmenting research consent: Should large language models (LLMs) be used for informed consent to clinical research
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, into clinical research could significantly enhance the informed consent process. This paper critically examines the ethical implications of employing LLMs to facilitate consent in clinical research. LLMs could offer considerable benefits, such as improving participant understanding and engagement, broadening participants’ access to th…
Psychedelics beyond medicine: Treatment, enhancement, hype, consent, and the limits of medicalization
The current revival of interest in classic psychedelics and other psychoactives such as ketamine and MDMA, coupled with changes to their regulatory status in many jurisdictions, necessitates rigorous ethical guidelines both within and beyond clinical and scientific contexts. This paper examines crucial ethical, philosophical, and policy considerations needed to ensure psychedelic use across various settings remains equitable, beneficial, consensu…
Respecting formerly autonomous persons: Clarifying the role of the Personalised Patient Preference Predictor (P4) in substituted judgement
Digital twins or AI SIMs? What to call generative AI systems designed to emulate specific individuals, in healthcare settings and beyond
Something old, something new? The Journal of Medical Ethics turns 50
Chat-IRB? How application-specific language models can enhance research ethics review
Institutional review boards (IRBs) play a crucial role in ensuring the ethical conduct of human subjects research, but face challenges including inconsistency, delays, and inefficiencies. We propose the development and implementation of application-specific large language models (LLMs) to facilitate IRB review processes. These IRB-specific LLMs would be fine-tuned on IRB-specific literature and institutional datasets, and equipped with retrieval …
Harms of the current global anti-FGM campaign
Traditional female genital practices, though long-standing in many cultures, have become the focus of an expansive global campaign against ‘female genital mutilation’ (FGM). In this article, we critically examine the harms produced by the anti-FGM discourse and policies, despite their grounding in human rights and health advocacy. We argue that a ubiquitous ‘standard tale’ obscures the diversity of practices, meanings and experiences among those …
Good bioethics and a good bioethicist: John McMillan’s contributions to JME ’s legacy
Moral enhancement and cheapened achievement: Psychedelics, virtual reality and AI
A prominent critique of cognitive or athletic enhancement claims that certain performance‐improving drugs or technologies may ‘cheapen’ resulting achievements. Considerably less attention has been paid to the impact of enhancement on the value of moral achievements. Would the use of moral enhancement (bio)technologies, rather than (solely) ‘traditional’ means of moral development like schooling and socialization, cheapen the ‘achievement’ of mora…
On Religious Influence in Bioethics: The Limits of Pluriversalism
The World Congress of Bioethics held in Qatar in 2024 (WCB 2024) sparked controversy around the role of religion in bioethics, highlighting the need for critical discussions. During the congress, there was a strong push for incorporating religious values into bioethical discourse, raising questions about the validity and implications of such an approach. This paper examines the influence of religious thought on bioethical discussions, and the ong…
Impartial Beneficence Predicts Greater and More Uniform Concern for Others Across Social Relationships
The principle of impartial beneficence (IB) holds that we should strive to maximize others’ well-being regardless of their relationship to us. But does endorsement of IB in principle translate to more uniform concern for others irrespective of relationship type? Three pre-registered studies in online samples of U.S. participants (total N =1,716) found IB endorsement predicts greater and more uniform concern for others across social relationships …
Clinical, Ethical, and Legal Considerations Raised by Self-Reported Genital Mutilation Following Voluntary Cosmetic Labiaplasty
An increasing number of women are undergoing female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS). Labiaplasty, the most commonly performed FGCS, consists of a surgical procedure to decrease the inner labia size so that no or less tissue protrudes beyond the outer labia. Anatomically, it is similar to female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) Type 2a. Thus, what are the differences and similarities between FGCS and FGM/C? Even though FGCS is not recommended by…
Technology and the good society
Justify your alpha
Against legalising female ‘circumcision’ of minors: A reply to ‘The prosecution of Dawoodi Bohra women’ by Richard Shweder
Defenders of male circumcision increasingly argue that female ‘circumcision’ (cutting of the clitoral hood or labia) should be legally allowed in Western liberal democracies even when non-consensual. In his target article, Richard Shweder (2022) gives perhaps the most persuasive articulation of this argument to have so far appeared in the literature. In my own work, I argue that no person should be subjected to medically unnecessary genital cutti…
Political differences in free will belief are associated with differences in moralization
performed it (Studies 7a-d). These results are consistent with our theory that political differences in free will belief are at least partly explicable by conservatives' tendency to moralize, which strengthens motivation to justify blame with stronger belief in free will and personal accountability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Should Surgery for Hypospadias Be Performed Before An Age of Consent
Hypospadias is a relatively common genital condition in which the urethral opening forms on the underside of the penis, as opposed to at the tip of the glans. Patients with hypospadias are typically referred for surgery during infancy or early childhood. Recent evidence, however, indicates that many individuals with hypospadias do not experience the functional or psychosocial difficulties commonly attributed to the condition, and that surgical in…
Genital Cutting as Gender Oppression: Time to Revisit the WHO Paradigm
The World Health Organization (WHO) condemns all medically unnecessary female genital cutting (FGC) that is primarily associated with people of color and the Global South, claiming that such FGC violates the human right to bodily integrity regardless of harm-level, degree of medicalization, or consent. However, the WHO does not condemn medically unnecessary FGC that is primarily associated with Western culture, such as elective labiaplasty or gen…
Priming intuition disfavors instrumental harm but not impartial beneficence
Love drugs: Why scientists should study the effects of pharmaceuticals on human romantic relationships
What counts as mutilation—and who should decide? Disrupting dominant discourses on genital cutting and modification
Broad Medical Uncertainty and the ethical obligation for openness
This paper argues that there exists a collective epistemic state of ‘Broad Medical Uncertainty’ (BMU) regarding the effectiveness of many medical interventions. We outline the features of BMU, and describe some of the main contributing factors. These include flaws in medical research methodologies, bias in publication practices, financial and other conflicts of interest, and features of how evidence is translated into practice. These result in a …
Ethics of genetic research on same-sex sexual behaviour
Natural Selection, Childrearing, and the Ethics of Marriage (and Divorce): Building a Case for the Neuroenhancement of Human Relationships
We argue that the fragility of contemporary marriages-and the corresponding high rates of divorce-can be explained (in large part) by a three-part mismatch: between our relationship values, our evolved psychobiological natures, and our modern social, physical, and technological environment. "Love drugs" could help address this mismatch by boosting our psychobiologies while keeping our values and our environment intact. While individual couples sh…
Replication, falsification, and the crisis of confidence in social psychology
The (latest) crisis in confidence in social psychology has generated much heated discussion about the importance of replication, including how it should be carried out as well as interpreted by scholars in the field. For example, what does it mean if a replication attempt "fails"-does it mean that the original results, or the theory that predicted them, have been falsified? And how should "failed" replications affect our belief in the validity of…
‘Utilitarian’ judgments in sacrificial moral dilemmas do not reflect impartial concern for the greater good
A growing body of research has focused on so-called 'utilitarian' judgments in moral dilemmas in which participants have to choose whether to sacrifice one person in order to save the lives of a greater number. However, the relation between such 'utilitarian' judgments and genuine utilitarian impartial concern for the greater good remains unclear. Across four studies, we investigated the relationship between 'utilitarian' judgment in such sacrifi…
Should Surgery for Hypospadias Be Performed Before An Age of Consent
Hypospadias is a relatively common genital condition in which the urethral opening forms on the underside of the penis, as opposed to at the tip of the glans. Patients with hypospadias are typically referred for surgery during infancy or early childhood. Recent evidence, however, indicates that many individuals with hypospadias do not experience the functional or psychosocial difficulties commonly attributed to the condition, and that surgical in…
Field Notes
I'm snowed in at The Hastings Center, looking out the window at the Hudson, and I'm thinking a lot about words. At a recent lunchtime talk, the term “eugenics” came up. The implication was that if something is “eugenics,” then it's wrong—end of story. But as somebody pointed out, that kind of rhetoric is too easy. It becomes a stand‐in for an ethical argument and allows us to skip the actual thinking. Why is eugenics bad? What kind of eugenics ar…
Badly specified theories are not responsible for the replication crisis in social psychology: Comment on Klein
Klein (2014) argues that the replication crisis in social psychology is due—at least in large part—to the tendency of psychological theories to be ill-specified. We disagree. First, we use both historical and contemporary examples to show that high-quality replication is possible even in the absence of a well-specified theory; and, second, we argue that it is typically auxiliary assumptions, rather than theories themselves, that need to be more c…
Circumcision of male infants and children as a public health measure in developed countries: A critical assessment of recent evidence
In December of 2014, an anonymous working group under the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a draft of the first-ever federal recommendations regarding male circumcision. In accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics' circumcision policy from 2012 - but in contrast to the more recent 2015 policy from the Canadian Paediatric Society as well as prior policies (still in force) from medical associations in…
Beyond sacrificial harm: A two-dimensional model of utilitarian psychology.
(see record 2018-15704-001). The copyright attribution was incorrectly listed, and the Creative Commons CC-BY license disclaimer was incorrectly omitted from the author note. The correct copyright is "© 2017 The Author(s)" and the omitted disclaimer is found in the erratum. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Recent research has relied on trolley-type sacrificial moral dilemmas to study utilitarian versus nonutilitarian modes of mo…
False beliefs predict increased circumcision satisfaction in a sample of US American men
Critics of non-therapeutic male and female childhood genital cutting claim that such cutting is harmful. It is therefore puzzling that 'circumcised' women and men do not typically regard themselves as having been harmed by the cutting, notwithstanding the loss of sensitive, prima facie valuable tissue. For female genital cutting (FGC), a commonly proposed solution to this puzzle is that women who had part(s) of their vulvae removed before sexual …
Technology and the good society
Love drugs: Why scientists should study the effects of pharmaceuticals on human romantic relationships
Justify your alpha
Love and Enhancement Technology
Chemical and other interventions into the biological dimensions of love are currently possible and will likely become more powerful in years to come. This chapter explores some of the conceptual issues surrounding what it would mean to change love with biochemical agents, and presents a handful of case studies of individuals and couples who might desire to use such agents as a way of enhancing their love and relationships. The chapter then discus…
Callahanian Bioethics
For someone with an outsized influence on a field he helped to create, Dan Callahan was anything but overbearing. Physically compact, thin, and wiry in older age, he spoke at the rapid speed of his mind. Soon after I met him—when I was on the cusp of what would become a year‐long residency at The Hastings Center—I found myself seated in his decidedly quaint living room. Dan told a story that evening, one of many that has stuck in my head. It seem…
Priming intuition disfavors instrumental harm but not impartial beneficence
Identity, well-being and autonomy in ongoing puberty suppression for non-binary adults: A response to the commentaries
In this article, we analyse the novel case of Phoenix, a non-binary adult requesting ongoing puberty suppression (OPS) to permanently prevent the development of secondary sex characteristics, as a way of affirming their gender identity. We argue that (1) the aim of OPS is consistent with the proper goals of medicine to promote well-being, and therefore could ethically be offered to non-binary adults in principle; (2) there are additional equity-b…
Systems thinking in gender and medicine
If there is a single thread running through this issue of the journal, it may be the complex interplay between the individual and the system(s) of which they are apart, highlighting a need for systems thinking in medical ethics and public health.1 2 Such thinking raises at least three sorts of questions in this context: normative questions about the locus of moral responsibility for change when a system is unjust; practical questions about how to…
Forever young? The ethics of ongoing puberty suppression for non-binary adults
In this article, we analyse the novel case of Phoenix, a non-binary adult requesting ongoing puberty suppression (OPS) to permanently prevent the development of secondary sex characteristics, as a way of affirming their gender identity. We argue that (1) the aim of OPS is consistent with the proper goals of medicine to promote well-being, and therefore could ethically be offered to non-binary adults in principle; (2) there are additional equity-b…
Pandemic medical ethics
The COVID-19 pandemic will generate vexing ethical issues for the foreseeable future and many journals will be open to content that is relevant to our collective effort to meet this challenge. While the pandemic is clearly the critical issue of the moment, it’s important that other issues in medical ethics continue to be addressed as well. As can be seen in this issue, the Journal of Medical Ethics (JME) will uphold its commitment to publishing h…
What is the best age to circumcise? A medical and ethical analysis
Circumcision is often claimed to be simpler, safer and more cost‐effective when performed in the neonatal period as opposed to later in life, with a greater benefit‐to‐risk ratio. In the first part of this paper, we critically examine the evidence base for these claims, and find that it is not as robust as is commonly assumed. In the second part, we demonstrate that, even if one simply grants these claims for the sake of argument, it still does n…
Does encouraging a belief in determinism increase cheating? Reconsidering the value of believing in free will
Why was the U.S. ban on ‘female genital mutilation ruled unconstitutional, and what does this have to do with male circumcision
Hume's Missing Shade of Blue: A New Solution
What to do with the missing shade of blue (MSB)? Some have argued that Hume's famous thought experiment undermines his central doctrine – the ‘copy principle’ – such that he should have revised his whole theory in light of it. Others contend that the MSB is not a true or actual counterexample to the copy principle, but merely an apparent or conceivable one, so that he had no such obligation to revise. In this essay, I argue that even if the MSB i…
The Ordinary Concept of True Love
When we say that what two people feel for each other is “true love,” we seem to be doing more than simply clarifying that it is in fact love they feel, as opposed to something else. That is, an experience or relationship might be a genuine or actual instance of love without necessarily being an instance of true love. But what criteria do people use to determine whether something counts as true love? This chapter explores three hypotheses. The fir…
Experimental philosophical bioethics and normative inference
This paper explores an emerging sub-field of both empirical bioethics and experimental philosophy, which has been called “experimental philosophical bioethics” (bioxphi). As an empirical discipline, bioxphi adopts the methods of experimental moral psychology and cognitive science; it does so to make sense of the eliciting factors and underlying cognitive processes that shape people’s moral judgments, particularly about real-world matters of bioet…
Psychology (47 works) · Political science (34 works) · Law (32 works) · Social Psychology (26 works) · Medicine (25 works) · Computer Science (22 works) · Sociology (22 works) · Epistemology (17 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (14 works)