In our session, we broadly discussed about ethical issues related to athlete’s illegal use of drugs. Although drugs and doping can cause serious side effects to human body, a number of athletes still decide to take those prohibited drugs to enhance their performance. The survey was taken by one of the sports magazines asking track athletes that “If you take this drug, you will be guaranteed to earn gold medal in Olympic Games, but you will die in seven years because of the side effects. Would you take this drug?” Surprisingly, about 80% of those athletes answered that they will still take the drugs, which shows that many athletes decide to use drugs even though they know it will harm their body.
We talked about gene doping and morality of choosing the traits of the baby to grow as a perfectly conditioned athlete. Recently in Britain, HFEA, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, approved the embryo screening which allows parents at risk of transmitting genetic disease to ensure that their children are unaffected by the disease. It is good news that we can use this technology to prevent children born with high possibilities of getting disease. However, what if this can be used in unethical way in sport? If parents can decide the preferred traits of their child to let him become athlete, for example, selecting specific height and strength of specific body, and the child later realizes that he has been planned and forced to become an athlete, what’s the difference between gene doping and buying a man made robot? In my opinion, gene doping violates both human right and the honesty of athletes that they must embrace in sport activities. Every athletes need to have equal opportunity to develop and strengthen their athletic skills, which I think enhancing the ability with the help of the modulation of gene expression should be prohibited.
Related link:
http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/embryo-screening-and-the-ethics-of-60561
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