Gene Doping in Sports

If I were given a choice between gene therapy for mental or athletic prowess, I would choose mental prowess without a thought. (Maybe the ability to tell better jokes would come with improved brain power.) Not being a natural born athlete has biased me towards thinking that brains overcome brawn. But for many people, athletics are just as important as academics, i.e., the opening of the Singapore Sports School last year. Many promising young athletes are tempted by the boost conveyed by anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Once genetic enhancements are available, we spectators may get to see even more spectacular sporting competitions.

Athletes have already been the focus of studies seeking to understand the genetic underpinnings of physical abilities. As many as 500 genes and DNA markers may be associated with athletic performance and health-related fitness. Scientists have bioengineered mice with larger-than-average muscles by knocking out the myostatin gene (these mice have been knicknamed ”Schwarzenegger mice”). (The Boston Globe, July 14, 2005)

It’s hard to determine what athletes are allowed to do to improve their abilities without being called a “cheat.” If we expect them to rely on their natural born abilities, should they not engage in any vigorous training or take vitamin supplements? Maybe only children who’ve never received any real coaching are true athletes. I can attest to my toddler son’s natural ability to kick the soccer ball as agilely as his father; it must be hereditary.

Michael J. Sandel wrote in The Atlantic (April 2004, subscription only) that because natural, inborn talents differ, there’s no such thing as fairness in sports. So drug/gene doping in sports would not necessarily lead to a new disparity between those who have access and those who don’t (think industrialized vs developing countries at the Olympics).

Maybe the trouble is believing we can be anything we want to be if we just work hard enough.

The real problem with genetically altered athletes is that they corrupt athletic competition as a human activity that honors the cultivation and display of natural talents.

In a world where drug/gene doping in sports is accepted practice, there will be tremendous pressure on athletes to perform at their peak at all times.

One of the blessings of seeing ourselves as creatures of nature, God, or fortune is that we are not wholly responsible for the way we are. The more we become masters of our genetic endowments, the greater the burden we bear for the talents we have and the way we perform. Today when a basketball player misses a rebound, his coach can blame him for being out of position. Tomorrow the coach may blame him for being too short. Even now the use of performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports is subtly transforming the expectations players have for one another; on some teams players who take the field free from amphetamines or other stimulants are criticized for “playing naked.”

If gene doping becomes available to improve intellectual abilities, even non-athletes like me will soon have to worry about being accountable for “thinking naked.”