INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

The sheer number of gene transfer procedures making it to the
clinical trial stage attests to the strong possibility that diseases like
muscular dystrophy, certain cancers, arthritis, and so on will
incorporate gene therapies into their standard treatments. Based on the
past trends of performance-enhancing drugs and performanceenhancing
measures, there will certainly be a subset within the group
of all athletes that will want to undergo gene transfer procedures if
they are convinced doing so will bring them one step closer to
obtaining world records and Olympic gold medals. The accessibility
that might arise when these procedures become available treatments
for injured and diseased people could further their popularity as
desirable options for athletes. Once the safety and efficacy of gene
therapies is established, the attractiveness of these procedures to
certain athletes will likely further increase. Adding to their desirability
is the fact that regulated gene therapies will be safer than using
unregulated substances like designer steroids or synthetic EPO
because doctors and scientists will have researched, tested, and
performed the procedures. The threat that gene therapies in the hands
of the wrong people pose to the fight against doping in sport has been
established. This makes gene doping a reality, not just a work of
science fiction or a hypothetical situation with little chance of
developing into a routine practice.
Despite the perceived safety of gene transfer techniques, they
evoke many ethical issues when used for the sake of gene doping.
First, it is necessary to determine if using gene therapies to enhance
athletic performance is morally acceptable or unacceptable in sport
and to ascertain if the WADA’s ban on gene doping is ethical and in
accordance with their position on doping in sport. When the WADA
included gene doping on its list of Prohibited Classes and Methods as
part of the World Anti-Doping Code on January 1, 2003, the agency
took a proactive measure to eradicate gene doping in sport. In
classifying gene doping, alongside oxygen transfers and chemical,
pharmacological, and physical manipulations of samples, as a banned
practice in sport, the WADA determined that it met at least two of the
following three criteria: enhances performance, harms the athlete, or
violates the spirit of sport (World Anti-Doping Code, 2003: p. 16).
Which two of these three criteria gene doping meets is not explained
and very few details are given to justify why it is banned. Included
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