The Olympics Heat Up Debate on Enhancement
With the Olympic competitions heating up, the debates on enhancement, sport, and the human form have more than left the starting blocks in the newspapers and online. Personally, I can't muster up more than a review of what's been written as I'm less than convinced that there are any really interesting ethical issues here to talk about.
Andy Miah's commentary in the Washington Post
argues that enhancement is great, but that steroids are not. Huh? In the New York Times, John Tierney says that if we can't test for enhancing drugs, we might as well "let the games be doped". Jonathan Moreno never really stakes a claim, but his Science Progress piece reminds us that progressives care about enhancement too, or at least know how to talk about it over sandwiches, liberal-style. Jere Longman and Gina Kolata, also in the Times, advance the claim that better technology, not better humans, is the reason why records are being shattered in Beijing.
Anyone else have a comment about enhancement? As for me, I'm going back to just enjoying watching the struggle, the thrill of victory, and leaving it to someone else to care whether the ancient Greeks are rolling over in their graves at the events of the 2008 Olympics.
Summer Johnson, PhD
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I think Andy Miah only said that anabolic steroids were not acceptable because of the health risks. Nothing at all to do with them being performance enhancers. I'm sure if another enhancement, such as a form of gene doping, was found to have similarly dangerous effects, he would be just as opposed to that.
- by Josh on Aug 13, 2008 at 8:54 PM | link
thanks josh, yes, that's pretty much it. it's not that i'm opposed to people taking significant health risks, rather that our primary objective should be to develop and allow the utilization of the safest forms of performance enhancers - i.e. minimize the potential harm within a pro-enhancement climate.
- by andy miah on Oct 22, 2008 at 7:14 AM | link