Bioethics, Genetics and Sport

Advances in genetics and related biotechnologies are having a profound effect on sport, raising important ethical questions about the limits and possibilities of the human body. Drawing on real case studies and grounded in rigorous scientific evidence, this book offers an ethical critique of current practices and explores the intersection of genetics, ethics and sport.

Written by two of the world’s leading authorities on the ethics of biotechnology in sport, the book addresses the philosophical implications of the latest scientific developments and technological data. Distinguishing fact from popular myth and science fiction, it covers key topics such as the genetic basis of sport performance and the role of genetic testing in talent identification and development. Its ten chapters discuss current debates surrounding issues such as the shifting relationship between genetics, sports medicine and sports science, gene enhancement, gene transfer technology, doping and disability sport.

The first book to be published on this important subject in more than a decade, this is fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the ethics of sport, bioethics or sport performance.

Silvia Camporesi is a Bioethicist with an interdisciplinary background in biotechnology, ethics and the philosophy of medicine. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and Director of the MSc in Bioethics & Society at King’s College London, UK. Over the past decade, Silvia has written extensively about the ethics of emerging biotechnologies. Her first book, From Bench to Bedside to Track and Field: the Context of Enhancement and its Ethical Relevance, was published for UC Medical Humanities Press in 2014. This is her second book. Silvia also serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, and is a member of the Institute of Medical Ethics Research Committee, which fosters research and teaching in bioethics in the UK.

Mike McNamee is Professor of Applied Ethics and Director of the Research Institute for Ethics and Law at Swansea University, UK. Over the last 25 years he has pioneered the Ethics of Sport as a research field. He has published several books including Research Ethics in Exercise, Health and Sport Sciences (Routledge, 2006), Sports, Virtues and Vices (Routledge, 2008) and Sport, Medicine, Ethics (Routledge, 2016). He is the Founding Editor of the international journal Sport, Ethics and Philosophy (2007-17), and Co-Editor of Routledge’s Ethics and Sport book series (1998-) which comprises more than 30 volumes. His work has been funded by various national research councils and the European Commission, in topics ranging from anti-doping policies and eating disorders in sport, to the ethics of human enhancement. He is a member of WADA’s Ethics Panel, and Programme Director of a consortium of European Universities in a new Erasmus+ funded MA degree in Sport Ethics and Integrity.