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 practice 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 ten years, 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 at King’s College London, UK, where she is also the Director of the MSc programme in Bioethics and Society. Dr Camporesi began her career as a molecular biologist in Italy. After gaining direct experience working on gene therapy in animal models at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Trieste, she left the bench to research the ethics of early clinical trials in oncology, completing a PhD in Foundations of Life Sciences and Ethics at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan. She was then awarded a prestigious Wellcome Trust fellowship to pursue a second PhD at King’s College London, where she investigated the ethics of genetic technologies applied in the context of reproduction and sport

Mike McNamee is Professor of Applied Ethics and Director of the Research Institute for Ethics and Law at Swansea University, Wales, 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 Sport Ethics 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, and the ethics of human enhancement. He is a member of WADAs Ethics Panel, and Programme Director of a consortium of European Universities in a new Erasmus+ funded MA degree in Sport Ethics and Integrity