Dr Robert Sparrow
Ph.D. (ANU). BA (Hons) (University of Melbourne).
Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Associate Professor
Email: robert.sparrow@monash.edu
Areas of Research
At the highest level of description my research interests are political philosophy and applied ethics; I am interested in philosophical arguments with real-world implications. More specifically, I am working in or have worked in: political philosophy, bioethics, environmental ethics, media ethics; just war theory; and the ethics of science and technology.
A more-or-less-up-to-date list of my publications with links to copies of (some of) them, can be found here. Copies of all of my published papers are available on request.
My current and past research projects are set out in more detail below, roughly in order of their relative importance in my current research activity.
New reproductive technologies
A large proportion of my philosophical work in bioethics concerns the ethics of new reproductive technologies and especially their implications for our ideas about normal human bodies and the importance of genetic relatedness.
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and the 'disability critique'
My other main area of research in bioethics concerns the ethics of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and the 'disability' or 'expressivist' critique of the use of this technology to prevent the birth of children with disabilities. In 2010 I was awarded an ARC "Future Fellowship" ($561 000) for a project on "A new ethics for the development and application of genetic technologies in a pluralist society", to run from 2011-2014.
Human enhancement
It is almost impossible to work in contemporary bioethics without becoming concerned about the prospects for, and ethics, of human enhancement. In particular, I am interested in the possible use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis for non-therapeutic purposes. My liberal intuitions make me suspicious about state regulation in this area but my communitarian leanings cause me to worry about the extent it is possible to embrace these technologies without radically changing what it means to be human. I have recently authored a series of papers examining the implications of a commitment to "enhancing" human beings for our attitude towards sex selection.
Robotics and artificial intelligence
I have a major research project underway on the ethical issues associated with robotics, including military robotics, robotic companions, and robots in aged care. Roughly speaking I am pursuing two avenues of investigation in this research. Firstly, I am interested in the ethical issues which might arise if we took some of the more outre pronouncements of roboticists and futurists such as Ray Kurzweil and Hans Moravec seriously; doing so also offers an excellent opportunity to test out intuitions (for instance, about the nature of persons) which are important in other philosophical debates. Secondly, I am interested in doing serious work in applied ethics in relation to the application of real or near term robots in various roles. My work on the 'Good Soldiers and Ethical Soldiers' grant (described below) was largely concerned with real-world military robotics. You can learn some of my conclusions by reading an interview with me.
Military ethics and Just war theory
Along with Dr Jessica Wolfendale and Professor Tony Coady (both from the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, University of Melbourne division), I have investigated how current and future developments in military technology may affect the military's core ethical commitments, the character of individual warfighters, and traditional applications of just war theory. The Australian Research Council granted our research team $440,000 to conduct this project from 2007-2009. I have previously done work on the foundations and moral significance of the combatant/non-combatant distinction in just war theory.
Cochlear implants and Deaf Culture
I have written on the 'cochlear implant controversy' and on the ethics of the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to choose to have a deaf child. My research in this area is informed by my philosophical commitments in the liberal-communitarian debate and also my interest in the disability critique of prenatal screening.
Open borders and the politics of exclusion
Debates about the boundaries of the political community and the right of communities to exclude others are some of the most politically urgent and also philosophically difficult debates in contemporary politics. The demand for 'open borders' and the free movement of peoples is one that anyone with liberal or egalitarian intuitions must take extremely seriously. Yet the ideals of national self–determination, land rights, bio-regionalism, democracy, federalism, and self government, all seem to presuppose that a distinction can be made between the inside and the outside of a social group or geographical region; in some form or other, they require borders. My current work in political philosophy for the most part involves trying to resolve, or at least negotiate, this apparent tension.
Organ Transplants and Xenotransplantation
I am interested in the ethics of organ donation and salvage from patients at various stages in the dying process. I am also interested in xenotransplantation and especially the issues of international justice raised by the risk of xenozoonosis which may be involved in xenotransplantation.
The political philosophy of anarchism
I have long-standing interest in the political philosophy of anarchism. While it is not currently a major focus of my research I continue to publish on it occasionally, especially in so far as anarchist political philosophy can illuminate issues in my other areas of research.
The ethics of nanotechnology
I have worked in debates about the ethics of nanotechnology both because of the possible implications and impacts of nanotechnology and also because these debates offer a unique opportunity to discuss how a democratic society should make decisions about science and technology policy.
Historical injustice
Debates about historical injustice and our obligations to past generations are fascinating in part because contemporary analytic philosophy has so few resources to explain our intuitions (and indeed social practice) in this area. This is a topic I would like to work on more.
Media Ethics
I developed and taught a media ethics course at the University of Wollongong and have a continuing interest in the politics of communication and the ethics of representation.
The liberal-communitarian debate
My doctoral studies at the Australian National University, with Professor Robert Goodin, were concerned with the liberal communitarian debate. I haven't revisited this material recently but I maintain an interest in it and am currently supervising students in the area.
Environmental ethics
I'm interested in environmental ethics, especially the ethics of genetic modification, the ethics of our treatment of complex in organic systems, and also applications of virtue ethical arguments to environmental issues.
Publications
Refereed Journal Articles
Sparrow, R. 2011. Fear Of A Female Planet: How John Harris Came To Endorse Eugenic Social Engineering. Journal of Medical Ethics Online First, July 23, 2011. DOI: 10.1136/jme.2011.045021
Sparrow, R. 2011. Harris, harmed states, and sexed bodies. Journal of Medical Ethics 37 (5): 276-279. DOI:10.1136/jme.2010.039982
Sparrow, R. 2011. The Dead Donor Rule and Means-End Reasoning: A Reply to Napier.Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (forthcoming, accepted 7/12/2010)
Sparrow, R. 2011. Human enhancement and sexual dimorphism. Bioethics 25: Online first. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8519.2011.01884.x.
Sparrow, R. 2011. A not-so-new eugenics: Harris and Savulescu on human enhancement. Hastings Center Report 41 (1): 32-42.
Sparrow, R. 2010. Orphaned at conception: The uncanny offspring of embryos. Bioethics . Online first: DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8519.2010.01848.x
Sparrow, R. 2010. Better than men? Sex and the therapy/enhancement distinction. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 20 (2): 115-144 .
Sparrow, R. 2010. Should human beings have sex? Sexual Dimorphism and Human Enhancement. American Journal of Bioethics 10 (7): 3-12. DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2010.489409
Sparrow, R. 2010. Liberalism and Eugenics.Australasian Journal of Philosophy. 89 (3): 499-517. DOI: 10.1080/00048402.2010.484464
Sparrow, R. 2010. Implants and Ethnocide: Learning from the cochlear implant controversy. Disability and Society 25 (4): 455-466. Online First, DOI: 10.1080/09687591003755849 .
Sparrow, R. & Cram, D. 2010. Saviour embryos? Preimplantation genetic diagnosis as a therapeutic technology. Reproductive BioMedicine Online.
Sparrow, R., and Gardiner, D. 2010. Not Dead Yet: Controlled Non-Heart Beating Organ Donation, Consent, and the Dead Donor Rule. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 19(1): 17-26, January.
Sparrow, R. 2009. Xenotransplantation, consent, and international justice. Developing World Bioethics 9(3): 119-27, December.
Sparrow, R. 2009. Therapeutic Cloning and Reproductive Liberty. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 34(2): 102-18, April
Sparrow, R. 2009. The social impacts of nanotechnology: an ethical and political analysis. The Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 6(1): 13-23, January
Sparrow, R. 2009. Predators or Plowshares? Arms Control of Robotic Weapons. IEEE Technology and Society 28(1): 25-29, Spring.
Sparrow, R. 2009. Building a Better WarBot : Ethical issues in the design of unmanned systems for military applications. Science and Engineering Ethics 15(2):169–187, June.
Sparrow, R. 2008. Talkin' 'bout a (nanotechnological) revolution. IEEE Technology and Society 27(2): 37-43, June.
Sparrow, R. 2008. Is it 'every man's right to have babies if he wants them'? Male pregnancy and the limits of reproductive liberty. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 18(3): 275–299, September.
Sparrow, R., and Russell, W. 2008. The case for regulating intragenic GMOs. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 21(2): 153-181, April.
Sparrow, R. 2007. Procreative Beneficence, Obligation, and Eugenics. Genomics, Society and Policy 3(3): 43-59, December.
Sparrow, R. 2007. Revolutionary and familiar, inevitable and precarious: Rhetorical contradictions in enthusiasm for nanotechnology. NanoEthics 1(1): 57-68, March.
Sparrow, R. 2007. Killer Robots. Journal of Applied Philosophy 24(1): 62-77, March.
Sparrow, R., and Sparrow, L. 2006. In the hands of machines? The future of aged care. Minds and Machines 16: 141-161, May.
Sparrow, R. 2006. 'Trust us... We're Doctors': Science, media, and ethics in the Hwang stem cell controversy. Journal of Communication Research 43(1): 5-24
Sparrow, R. 2006. Right of the Living Dead? Consent to experimental surgery in the event of cortical death. Journal of Medical Ethics 32(10): 601-605, October
Sparrow, R. 2006. Cloning, Parenthood, and Genetic Relatedness. Bioethics 20(6): 308-318.
Sparrow, R. 2005. 'Hands up who wants to die?': Primoratz on responsibility and civilian immunity in wartime. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 8(3): 299-319, June
Sparrow, R. 2005. Defending Deaf Culture: The Case of Cochlear Implants. The Journal of Political Philosophy 13(2): 135-152, June.
Sparrow, R. 2004. The Turing Triage Test. Ethics and Information Technology 6(4): 203-213.
Sparrow, R. 2002. The March of the Robot Dogs. Ethics and Information Technology 4(4): 305-318.
Sparrow, R. 2002. Talking Sense About Political Correctness. Journal of Australian Studies 73: 119-133.
Sparrow, R., and Goodin, R. E. 2001. The Competition of Ideas: Market or Garden? Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 4(2): 45-58.
Sparrow, R. 2000. History and Collective Responsibility. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 78(3): 346-359, September.
Sparrow, R. 1999. The Ethics of Terraforming. Environmental Ethics 21(3): 227-245.
Book Chapters
Sparrow, R. 2012. Can machines be people? Reflections on the Turing Triage Test. In Patrick Lin, Keith Abney, and George Bekey (eds) Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 301-315.
Sparrow, R. 2012. Ethics, eugenics, and politics. In Akira Akayabashi (ed) Toward Bioethics in 2050 – International Dialogues. (forthcoming).
Sparrow, R. 2011. Cloning, Parenthood, and Genetic Relatedness. In Stephen Holland (ed) Arguing About Bioethics. Routledge (forthcoming) [republished paper].
Sparrow, R. 2011. Robotic Weapons and the Future of War. In Jessica Wolfendale and Paolo Tripodi (eds) New Wars and New Soldiers: Military Ethics in the Contemporary World. Surrey, UK & Burlington, VA: Ashgate, 117-133.
Simpson, R. and Sparrow, R. 2011. Nanotechnologically Enhanced Combat Systems: The Downside of Invulnerability. In Anthony Mark Cutter and Bert Gordijn (eds) In Pursuit of NanoEthics: Transatlantic Perspectives in Nanotechnology. Springer. (forthcoming).
Sparrow, R. and G. Dabringer. 2010. Robotics, Ethics, and the Military. In G. Dabringer (eds) Interviews on Robots in the Military, Vienna, Austria: katholiches Militärseelsorge Österreich (forthcoming).
Sparrow, R. 2010. The slippery nature of nano-enthusiasm. In Fern Wickson and Kamilla Kjolberg (eds), Nano Meets Macro: Social Perspectives on Nanoscale Sciences and Technologies. Singapore: Pan Stanford Publishing, 123-138.
Sparrow, R. 2008. Genes, identity, and the expressivist critique. In Loane Skene and Janna Thompson (eds), The Sorting Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 111-132.
Sparrow, R. 2008. Killer Robots. In Igor Primoratz and Tony Coady (eds.), Military Ethics. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 527-542. [republished paper]
Sparrow, R. 2008. Anarchism since 1992. In Robert E. Goodin, Philip Pettit and Thomas Pogge (ed.), Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, 2nd edn, Volume One, Oxford: Blackwell, 282-284.
Sparrow, R. 2008. For the Union makes us strong: Anarchism and Patriotism. In Alexander Pavlovic and Igor Primoratz (eds), Patriotism: Philosophical and Political Perspectives, Ashgate, 201-217.
Sparrow, R. 2007. Negotiating the Nanodivides. In Graeme Hodge, Diana Bowman and Karinne Ludlow (eds), New Global Frontiers in Regulation: The Age of Nanotechnology, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 87-107.
Sparrow, R. 2007. 'Barbarians at the gates': The moral costs of political community. In Igor Primoratz (ed.), Politics and Morality, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 170-188.
Sparrow, R. 2004. Censorship and Freedom of Speech. In Healy, J. (ed), Censorship and Free Speech, Issues in Society Series, Vol. 207. Thirroul, NSW: The Spinney Press, 1-4.
Sparrow, R. 2001. Anarchist Politics and Direct Action. In Ahonen, T., Termonen, M., Tirkkonen, T. & Vehaluoto, U. (eds) Väärin ajateltua: anarckistisia puheenvuoroja herruudettmmasta yhteiskunnasta, Kopijyvä, Jyväskykä: Kampus Kustannus, 163-175. Trans, in Finnish.
Encyclopedia Entries
Sparrow, R. 2010. Anarchism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online (in progress)
Sparrow, R. 2010. Political Correctness. International Encyclopedia of Ethics (in progress)
Sparrow, R. 2005. Androids. In Mitcham, Carl (ed.) Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 68-69.
Sparrow, R. 2005. Robots. In Mitcham, Carl (ed.) Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 1654-1656.
Papers in Refereed Conference Proceedings
Sparrow, R. 2002. Liberal Freedoms and Cultural Goods. Proceedings of the 2002 Australian Association of Professional and Applied Ethics Conference. Brisbane, Australia.
Correspondence
Sparrow, R. 2010. Why Bioethicists Still Need to Think More About Sex … . American Journal of Bioethics 10 (7): W1-W3. DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2010.489410
Papers in Conference Proceedings
Sparrow, R. 2002. Culture and Choice: Two Models of Culture in the Cochlear Implant Debate, Proceedings of the 2nd Victorian State Deaf Conference, Different Views…One vision. May the 4th and 5th, Melbourne, Victorian Council of Deaf People, 51-72.
Sparrow, R. 2001. Artificial Intelligences, Embodiment and the 'Turing Triage Test'. In Ruth F. Chadwick, Lucas Introna and Antonio Marturano, (ed.), Proceedings of the Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry 2001 Conference: IT and the Body, 14-16 December, Lancaster University, Lancaster, U.K., 222-235.
Publications in popular press
Sparrow, R. 2010. "Sex Selection in the Context of Foetal Reduction: Analogies and Intuitions". Feature article in CENTRES Quarterly 4 (Reproductive Ethics, December 2010).
Sparrow, R. 2008. The perils and promise of nanotechnology. Materials Australia, August: 49.
Sparrow, R. 2008. The sins of science. Cosmos Online. 13 March
Sparrow, R. 2008. Hypocrisy about nanotechnology is a worrying sign. Friends of the Earth Nanotechnology Project, http://nano.foe.org.au/.
Sparrow, R. 2003. Borders, States, Freedom and Justice. Arena Magazine (66): 25-31.
Sparrow, R. 2003. Response to Critics. Arena Magazine (67): 35.
Sparrow, R. 2002. Better off Deaf? Res Publica 11(1): 11-16.