Brian Earp

Brian David Earp is an American bioethicist, philosopher, and interdisciplinary researcher. He is best known for his writings on intersex medical interventions, circumcision, and drug use in the United States. He is currently associate director of the Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy at Yale University and The Hastings Center, and a Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.

Earp has written on a wide range of topics, including free will, sex and gender and the replication crisis in psychology He currently writes the quarterly "Philosophy in the Real World" column for The Philosopher. In 2019, Earp wrote his first book (co-written with Julian Savulescu), published in the UK as Love Is the Drug: The Chemical Future of Our Relationships and in the United States as Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships).

Personal life

Earp grew up in a conservative evangelical Christian household. His mother was a stay-at-home mother; his father was a X-ray technician.

Work and views

Relationships and drugs

He is best known for writing Love Is the Drug: The Chemical Future of Our Relationships with Julian Savulescu. He has 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.

Circumcision and intersex medical interventions

Earp has argued that all forms of involuntary non-therapeutic genital modification and mutilation — including routine neonatal circumcision, intersex interventions, and female genital mutilation — are violations of bioethical principles. For this work, Earp was nominated for the 2020 John Maddox Prize, and received commendation from the judges, for “taking a multi-disciplined, science-based approach to a deep-rooted cultural practice”.

Bibliography

• Earp, Brian D.; Savulescu, Brian D. (2020). Love is the Drug: The Chemical Future of Our Relationships. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-1-5261-4541-3.
• Earp, Brian D.; Chambers, Clare; Watson, Lori, eds. (2022). The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality. Routledge. ISBN 9781138370678.

References