Media Appearances

Our areas of Expertise

Members of the centre are available to provide ethics advice and consultancy for a wide variety of research projects and areas. This includes novel biotechnology, medicine, AI, professional ethics and other areas involving challenging or conflicting ethical considerations (see below for more examples). It could include one-off consultation, teaching, written ethical analysis, or commissioning of ethics research.

For Media, Consultancy & Policy enquiries please contact Liz Sanders.

01865 286928 | liz.sanders@philosophy.ox.ac.uk

  • Cloning
  • Stem cell research
  • Genetics and genetic modification
  • Abortion
  • Controversial medical procedures
  • Synthetic biology
  • Ethics of human modification and enhancement technologies
  • Nanotechnology policy
  • Human dignity
  • Global risks
  • Moral enhancement
  • Neuroenhancement and pharmacological interventions
  • The neuroscience of ethics and moral decision-making
  • The vegetative state and disorders of consciousness
  • Addiction, free will and self-control
  • Brain-machine interfaces

Selected Media Appearances

The tabs below offer a selection of print and online media articles, podcasts, videos etc on a variety of topics.  For topic- or project-specific media resources, please browse the pages listed under Our Research.  

Crisp, R., (2023). Objective Morality - Alex O'Connor interviews Roger Crisp (5 November)

Crisp, R., & Mullins, B. (2023). Ethics from the Outside Looking In: An Interview with Roger Crisp. Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 16(2), aa–aa.

BBC Radio 4, In Our Time (hosted by Melvyn Bragg), Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, with Prof Roger Crisp (2 November 2023)

New York Times, Opinion Piece 'When Being Good Is Just a Matter of Being Lucky', cites work on 'moral luck' by Roger Crisp (20 September 2023)

The Sydney Morning Herald: 'Ten psych sessions is not enough after the years we’ve had', opinion piece by Daniel D’Hotman (13 December 2022)

BBC News: 'Three ethical issues around pig heart transplants', quotes Julian Savulescu and Katrien Devolder | by Jack Hunter (11 January 2022)

Podcast: Roger Crisp, 'Towards a Global Hedonism', Philosophy Voiced podcast with Peter Tuck and Vladimir Lukić, for the Centre for Ethics, University of Pardubice (6 July 2022)

Devolder, K., (2021), quoted in 'Gene-edited livestock: robust rules needed before approval, say ethicists', The Guardian (1 December).

Pugh, J., (2021), Drugs didn’t help her depression. Brain-zapping didWired.co.uk (4 October)

Crisp, R., (2021) Would extinction be so bad? Given the amount of suffering on Earth, the value of the continued existence of the planet is an open question, New Statesman (10 August)

Giubilini, A., (2021) Dr Alberto Giubilini interviewed for BBC World News on global vaccine distribution and vaccine nationalism [YouTube].

Rainey, S., (2021), Interviewed by Kate Wild for ‘Our notion of privacy will be useless’: what happens if technology learns to read our minds? The Guardian (6 November).  The piece also includes a section on the work of Marcello Ienca, OUC Visitor 2021.

Rainey, S., (2021), Interviewed about AI for Business Post Connected, "Thought Experiments on Mind, Man and Machine," by Jason Walsh (26 September 2021) [PDF]
[NB the article uses 'effect' instead of 'affect' throughout the article due to a typo introduced in the final editing stage]

Rainey, S., (2021), Interviewed about the Internet of Things for The Institute of Engineering and Technology, "The not-so-private party," By Chris Edwards (16 August 2021)

Savulescu, J. (2021), The myth and reality of the super soldier, BBC News (8 February)

Savulescu, J. and Soni, S., (2021) Polygenic Embryo Screening: Ethical and Legal Considerations, Hastings Bioethics Forum, Human Reproduction (20 October 2021)

Wilkinson, D. (2021), LBC Radio (with Nick Ferrari): Dominic Wilkinson discusses whether general anaesthesia should be offered to patients at end-of-life (28 April 2021) [02:35:30 on the clock]

Crisp, R (2020), CEPPA Chats, Roger Crisp sits down with Theron Pummer to talk about how we acquire private property and about borders and immigration (29 April). YouTube

Giubilini, A (2020), BBC Sounds: The Real Story 'Covid vaccines: An opportunity for science?' [Dr Giubilini's contribution appears at 37:00 - 40:00](27 November 2020)
Vaccines appear close to deployment. But how many people will be willing to get it?

Giubilini, A (2020), The Spectator Out Loud 'The ethics of lockdown' (7 November 2020)

Giubilini, A (2020), The Guardian, 17 September 2020, podcast: 'Covid-19 ethics: should we deliberately infect volunteers in the name of science? (part 2)'. Listen to Part 2 on The Guardian website.

Giubilini, A (2020), The Guardian, 15 September 2020 podcast: 'Covid-19 ethics: should we deliberately infect volunteers in the name of science?' (part 1). Listen to Part 1 on The Guardian website.

Giubilini, A (2020), The Washington Post Should a coronavirus vaccine be mandatory? In Brazil’s most populous state, it will be. (7 December 2020)

Giubilini, A (2020), Út úr kófinu! Covid-19 – siðferðileg álitamál [ethical issues] (10 December 2020)
YouTube discussion with Dr Jón Ívar Einarsson, Þorsteinn Siglaugsson and Dr Vilhjálm Árnason.  The participants discuss some of the ethical issues relating to Covid-19. Is it morally justified to ignore the consequences of antiviral measures when deciding on disease control measures? What are the ethical issues when it comes to the possible obligation to vaccinate or to infringe on the human rights of people who do not choose to be vaccinated? Is all human life equally important? Is it morally justified to consider the life of a young person more important than the life of an elderly person, as is often the case when deciding on treatment options in the health care system?  See organisation Út úr kófinu! website

Giubilini, A (2020), The Conversation Should COVID-19 vaccines be mandatory? Two experts discuss (25 November 2020)
Alberto Giubilini and Vageesh Jain
Some have suggested vaccines should be made compulsory, though the UK government has ruled this out. But with high rates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK and elsewhere, is this the right call?

Giubilini, A (2020), talkRADIO interviewed by Dan Wooton (5 November 2020) [YouTube video no longer available]

Giubilini, A (2020), The Spectator 'The (absent) ethics of lockdown' (7 November 2020) [view as jpg file or listen to reading on Spectator Out Loud

Giubilini, A (2020), New York Times 'In Fights Over Face Masks, Echoes of the American Seatbelt Wars' (15 October 2020)
References Giubilini and Savulescu's 2019 open access paper 'Vaccination, risks, and freedom: the seat belt analogy'

Giubilini, A (2020), Practical Ethics in the News BlogPandemic Ethics: Should Santa Claus deliver Christmas presents this year? Preparing for our first COVID-19 Christmas (15 October 2020)

Giubilini, A (2020), Boston Globe article 'COVID vaccinations could use a nudge'  (4 September 2020).
You’re more likely to get your coronavirus shot if that’s the easier course of action.

Giubilini, A (2020), New Scientist article 'If we ever make a covid-19 vaccine who should be first to get it?' (12 August 2020)

Giubilini, A (2020), Amnesty International online debate article 'Should vaccinations be mandatory?' with Louise Gunning for Dutch magazine Wordt Vervolgt (Amnesty International) (July 2020).

Giubilini, A (2020), laRegione article in Swiss newspaper, interview in Italian 'L’equità di un vaccino obbligatorio' [Immunity is a public good and as such everyone must contribute] (23 May 2020)

Giubilini, A (2020), news.com.au article 'Coronavirus vaccine: French government demands equal access in COVID-19 vaccine distribution row' (17 May 2020).
Tough decisions will need to be made about who should receive priority access to potential vaccines.

Giubilini, A (2020), The Atlantic (cross-posted with OUC's 'Ethics in the News' blog): Alberto Giubilini, Article: Is It Ethically Okay to Get Food Delivered Right Now? (16 April 2020). 
A guide to this and other pandemic food dilemmas.

Levy, N., (2020), How can we cope with climate change anxiety? The Independent [this article originally appeared in The Conversation] (5 March 2020)

Pugh, J., (2020), Ethics in AI Seminar - Does AI threaten Human Autonomy (With Dr Carina Prunkl and Jessica Morley, chaired by Professor Peter Millican). Humanities Cultural Programme (26 November 2020)

Pugh, J., (2020), OxPlore: What makes us who we are? OxPlore (31 March 2020)

Wilkinson, D., (2020), Medicine Voice of Islam Radio. From the origination of medicine in ancient Egypt around 2600 BC to the development of vaccines against novel diseases in 2020, medicine has come a long way. How much has changed and what is still missing in the discipline of medicine? Prof Wilkinson discusses decision-making in treatment, medical ethics, ethical training for medical professionals, resource allocation during the COVID-19 pandemic and paediatric organ transplantation [starts at 9:08] (14 December 2020).

Graham, M., (2019), 'Human-animal hybrids: Can we justify the experiments?', Contributed to an online article in BBC Science Focus (23 September).

Devolder, K., (2019), 'Mee met het idee. Kinderen met de beste kans op het beste leven', De Maakbare Mens (12 September).

Véliz, C., (2019), 'Privacy is power', Aeon  (2 September). Reprinted in El País.

Crisp, R., (2019), 'The Philosopher’s Zone', ABC. Interviewed about the Weil Lecture, presented in Melbourne and Brisbane (text of lecture here) (September).

Crisp, R., (2019), 'The Minefield', ABC. Discussion on free-riding with Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens (September).

Giubilini, A., (2019), 'Health vs Choice? The Vaccination Debate'. Battle of Ideas Festival (3 November 2019) YouTube

Graham, M., (2019), Radio interview on on organ transplants, talkRADIO (29 August).

Graham, M., (2019), 'The ethics of creating human-animal hybrids for organ donation', The Independent (originally published in The Conversation) (19 August).

Pugh, J., (2019), 'Deep Brain Stimulation', Aeon (14 August).

Levy, N., (2019), 'AI is coming, whether Australia has the policies to deal with it or not, report warns', ABC.net (29 July).

Levy, N., (2019), 'Will Australia miss the opportunity to cash in on the AI revolution?', ABC Radio (30 July).

Edmonds, D., (2019), 'Can computer profiles cut crime?', BBC Radio 4 Analysis. (30 June).

Giubilini, A., (2019), 'The World Vaccination Report: The Evidence', BBC World Service (22 June).

Véliz, C., (2019), 'Inteligencia artificial: ¿progreso o retroceso? (Artificial intelligence: progress or setback?)', El País (14 June).

Palacios-González, C., (2019), '¿Cuáles son los resguardos antes de tomar fotografías de los pacientes? (What are the safeguards before taking pictures of the patients?)', Medscape (7 June).

Véliz, C., (2019), 'How to Improve Online Speech with Pseudonymity' (podcast), Philosophical Disquisitions (20 May).

Brown, R., (2019), 'Obese people unfairly denied IVF by cost-cutting NHS, says Oxford academic', The Independent (14 April 2019).

Giubilini, A., (2019), 'Italy's attitude towards vaccine is a 'cultural and social problem'', Sputnik Radio (13 March).

Giubilini, A., (2019), 'The Ethics of Vaccination', Book launch, Oxford Martin School (5 March).

Palacios-González, C., (2019), Dr Palacios-González's blog post 'A third MRT-baby is on its way' was picked up and cited in MIT Technology Review online article 'Another use of an egg-swapping IVF technique has just been reported in Europe', MIT Technology Review (22 January 2019).

Pugh, J., (2019), 'BBC The Big Questions: 'Is it right to design babies?'', OUC Research Fellow, DrJonathan Pugh, recently participated in a debate 'Is it right to design babies?' for BBC1's The Big Questions, which ranged from ethical considerations of gene-editing technologies to NIPT (non-invasive prenatal testing).  Dr Pugh referenced the Nuffield Council on Bioethics report and discussed the need to balance the expected future well-being of children against the reproductive autonomy of parents.  Series 12 Episode 2 aired on 13 January 2019 and is available on iPlayer until 10 February 2019 (Dr Pugh's contribution appears at approx 18:40 on the clock).  Hosted by Nicky Campbell, 'The Big Questions' is a series of moral, ethical and religious debates. (13 January 2019).

Rainey, S (2019), TRT’s ‘Roundtable’, on brain enhancements https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwMuuyNypMs (25 September)

Savulescu, J., (2019), Press Statement: He Jiankui, (22 January 2019).

Wilkinson, D., (2019), 'Is it right to use Nazi research if it can save lives?', Written by Frank Swain for BBC Future, this article extensively quotes Dominic Wilkinson (24 July 2019).

Edmonds, D., (2018), 'Cars without drivers still need a moral compass. But what kind?', The Guardian (14 November).

Graham, M., (2018), 'The Ethics of Consciousness Hunting', Nautilus (6 September).

Maslen, H., (2018), 'Ethics and the brave new brain', All In The Mind - ABC Radio National (23 September).  Transcript and audio available here. 

Wilkinson, D., (2018), 'Charlie Gard case: new law will give hope to parents desperate to save their child', Interview in Sunday Times (9 September). https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/charlie-gard-case-new-law-will-give-h...

Rainey, S., (2018), 'Chatbot 'Mitsuku' wins AI competition based on Turing test ... again', Stephen Rainey was a judge at the Loebner prize, an AI competition based on the Turing test. It aims to find the most human-like chatbots by having judges try to distinguish between online, text-based chats with humans and with bots. (8 September).

Pugh, J., (2018), 'How science could wipe out disease-carrying mosquitoes and save lives', Global News (Canada) (15 July).

Wilkinson, D., (2018), 'What we can learn from the heartbreaking Alfie Evans case — and what we can’t', Interview Vox media (27 April).

Wilkinson, D., (2018), 'British toddler Alfie Evans not allowed to leave country, UK court says', Quoted in CNN online piece (26 April).

Wilkinson, D., (2018), 'How do medics reach decisions in cases like that of Alfie Evans?', Quoted in Express and Star (25 April).

Wilkinson, D., (2018), 'Fight Over Alfie Evans, a Brain-Damaged Baby, Divides U.K.', Interview in New York Times (26 April).

Wilkinson, D., (2018), 'Alfie Evans: No new treatments on offer despite offers of help abroad', Quoted in piece in The Times (25 April).

Véliz, C., (2018), 'Tus datos son tóxicos' [Your data is toxic]. El Pais. The trail of information that users leave on the Internet can be used against them. In the digital age, protecting privacy is the only way to achieve a free society (6 April).

Rainey, S., (2018), 'Braintech Podcast 006', Loup Ventures (21 March 2018). Discusses development of neuroprosthetics and future of neural discoveries.

Véliz, C., (2018), 'Common Sense for A.I. Is a Great Idea - but it’s harder than it sounds'. slate.com (19 March).

Graham, M., (2018), Panelist discussing the provision of life sustaining treatment in infants. BBC 1's 'The Big Questions'. Transcript available (18 March).

Rainey, S., (2018), 'Artificial Intelligence, the Singularity, and the Future', Panel Discussion,  Philosophy Now Festival 2018 (20 January). 

Giubilini, A., (2018), 'A Civilized Debate',  Radio Kerry (7 February). Is it possible to have a civilized debate on the issue of abortion? Interviewed in connection with the Irish Times article here.

Veliz, C., (2018), Al Jazeera Media ViewInterviewed in connection with privacy issues relating to Strava (fitness tracking app) after discovery of a major flaw in its global heatmap.  Highly sensitive data, location etc, collected on military personnel was found to be very easy to de-anonymize (29 January). 

Giubilini, A., (2018). Five rules for a open and civil debate on the abortion referendumThe Irish Times. (29 January)

Levy, N., (2018). So you’re too ethical to eat meat; but should cows go extinct? Aeon. (29 January)

Robillard, M., (2018), 'The ‘Killer Robots’ Are Us',  (29 January)

Veliz, C., (2018), '¿Confiar tus desnudos a Facebook?', [would you trust Facebook with nude photos?] (7 January)

Rainey, S., (2017), 'Getting to know you: Technology’s intimate insights into human behaviour'. Presentation on BrainCom for the British Neuroscience Association's Christmas event. (18 December)

Savulescu, J., (2017), Podcast for The Conversation, 'Speaking with: Julian Savulescu on the ethics of genetic modification in humans', What if humans are genetically unfit to overcome challenges like climate change and the growing inequality that looks set to define our future? (17 July).  http://theconversation.com/speaking-with-julian-savulescu-on-the-ethics-of-genetic-modification-in-humans-78249

Douglas, T., (2017), 'It's not always wrong to pay people for their organs'The Independent (12 June).

Levy, N., (2017), 'Is it ethical to swallow a morality pill?', CBC Radio 'The Current' (Canadian radio programme), cites 2012 paper by Terbeck, Kahane, Mctavish et al, 'Propranolol reduces implicit negative racial bias'
  listen  |  read transcript

Levy, N., (2017), 'Liberal or conservative? Most of our beliefs shift around', The Conversation (January).

Robillard, M., (2017), 'Enhancement of human abilities should be paired with moral education', Podcast interview on 'soldier enhancement' for US radio show Radio Sputnik (May).

Veliz, C., (2017), 'Why you might want to think twice about surrendering online privacy for the sake of convenience', The Conversation  (January ).