Associate Professor Brian D. Earp appointed Co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Medical Ethics in landmark 50th year
Published: 23 Jun 2025
Associate Professor Brian D Earp, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. Credit: NUS Medicine.
Associate Professor Brian D. Earp of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) has been appointed the next Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics (JME), one of the world’s leading platforms for ethical scholarship in medicine and healthcare.
An Associate Professor of Biomedical Ethics in the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at NUS Medicine, Assoc Prof Earp also holds courtesy appointments as Associate Professor of Philosophy and of Psychology at NUS, reflecting his wide-ranging interdisciplinary expertise.
Before joining NUS, Assoc Prof Earp was a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He is an elected member of the UK Young Academy, an initiative of the British Academy and the Royal Society, recognising early-career researchers of exceptional achievement and promise. At NUS, he directs both the Oxford-NUS Centre for Neuroethics and Society and the EARP Lab (Experimental Bioethics, Artificial Intelligence, and Relational Moral Psychology Lab).
Assoc Prof Earp will assume the role of Co-Editor-in-Chief, alongside Professor Lucy Frith (University of Manchester) and Associate Professor Arianne Shahvisi (Brighton and Sussex Medical School). This editorial transition comes at a historic moment as the journal celebrates its 50th year of publication under the BMJ.
“With my co-editors, I look forward to carrying on the proud tradition of the Journal of Medical Ethics,” said Assoc Prof Earp. “We aim to uphold its reputation for bringing rigorous philosophical and empirically informed analysis to the most pressing ethical issues in healthcare. I’m especially proud to represent Singapore and NUS in helping to lead this globally influential journal.”
Professor Julian Savulescu, Chen Su Lan Centennial Professor of Medical Ethics and Director of the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at NUS Medicine, also a two-time previous editor of the JME, welcomed the announcement, “Brian is one of the most dynamic and original thinkers in bioethics today. His appointment to lead the Journal of Medical Ethics is a testament to his scholarly excellence, breadth of vision, and deep commitment to responsible and inclusive academic publishing.”
Professor Chong Yap Seng, Dean of the NUS Medicine, added, “We are delighted to see Dr Earp take on this important global leadership role. His appointment reflects the growing international recognition of Singapore as a hub for ethical research and thought leadership in medicine and society.”
Assoc Prof Earp is a leading scholar in bioethics with an h-index of over 50 and more than 100 peer-reviewed articles cited at least ten times each. He is widely recognised for his work on the ethics of paediatric surgery, especially concerning bodily integrity and children’s rights. He also contributes extensively to scholarship on scientific integrity, reproducibility, and the ethics of peer review.
He holds a BA with distinction in Cognitive Science from Yale University, a Master of Science in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford, and a further Master’s in the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science, Technology, and Medicine from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Cambridge Trust Scholar at Trinity College. He earned his PhD jointly in Philosophy and Psychology from Yale University, where he was a Benjamin Franklin Graduate Fellow.
The JME was established in 1975 and is published by BMJ. It remains one of the most influential journals in its field, publishing cutting-edge work on ethical issues in clinical practice, biomedical research, public health, and health policy.
In addition to being appointed as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the JME, Assoc Prof Earp has also been appointed Editor-in-Chief of a new open access companion journal to the JME, covering the whole field of bioethics and also published by the BMJ: JME Practical Bioethics, which will be accepting initial submissions later this month.
“JME Practical Bioethics will have a broader scope than JME, and a more translational and applied focus, with an emphasis on rigorous empirical work spanning global and local contexts, in addition to traditional philosophical analysis,” said Assoc Prof Earp. “We are building a top-tier international team of editors to ensure a successful launch of this new platform for cutting-edge bioethical debate and scholarship.”
Read more in the press release here.
