Bioethics for Sports Fans

December 8, 2005

Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee is worried:

I am getting more and more anxious that this (gene doping) may be misused by athletes and coaches.

Rogge is calling on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to begin drafting rules against genetic doping. Theodore Friedmann, head of the WADA’s gene doping panel, is confident that gene-doping athletes will be caught. Some might call his take cynical, while others will simply call it realistic:

It will disappoint us but not shock us if somebody has already used genetic enhancement

For an in-depth analysis, see The U.S. President’s Council on Bioethics report Beyond Therapy, specifically chapter three, “Superior Performance.”