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Jocks v. Nerds: Detecting Gene-Dopers

Posted by michael on from the science-fiction-smacks-into-reality-with-a-thud dept.

kevinvee writes "The World Anti-Doping Agency will soon put into place gene doping tests to detect athletes using gene therapy. Perhaps the most important part to recognize is that Congress delegates have said that gene doping is a 'clear and present danger.' Professor Geoff Goldspink mentions this of gene therapy: 'We can put genes into mice and create Arnold Schwarzenegger mice.' So, be sure to watch next year's elections for furry white mice."

3 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Gene Therapy for intelligence by BWJones · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So, be sure to watch next year's elections for furry white mice.

    So, are you saying the incumbent will be getting a little NR2B gene therapy? (For those Slashdotters who are not neuroscientists, NR2B keeps the NMDA receptor in nervous tissues from desensitizing, apparently making learning in mice easier).

    --
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  2. Re:is it really cheating, though? by kfg · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have Cystic Fibrosis and Celiac Disease. Gene therapy may, at some point in the future, be the only thing that can save my life.

    Is it dangerous? Well, for me it's only dangerous in the negative sense, if I don't get it I could die.

    It kinda focuses my attention on the issue.

    I could, of course, be dead before any possible real therapy becomes available. This doesn't make me feel better about possible congressional roadblocks to its development, oddly enough.

    As for its use in sports the issue is handled easily enough if it can be detected by simple tests. We already segregate atheletic events into genetic classes. Create some new ones.

    Problem solved.

    If it can't be tested for or possitively certified in some simple way, well, then making rules against it is pointless.

    Sporting regulations are already full of object lessons in what happens when you try to regulate the unenforcable.

    Give up. Learn to live with it.

    That's what I hope to be able to do.

    KFG

  3. Descendants of mutants? by lommer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is an interesting question - I can see that they would not allow a genetically modified super-athlete to compete, but what about that person's children? They may still carry the genes, yet those genes were passed on to them naturally. Will having on genetically modified ancestor (say to make them stronger to resist cancer) ruin an entire family's chances of ever competing in international sports? If not, how many generations must occur without genetic modification before the modified-gene advantage is considered diluted enough?

    These are all questions that need to be answered once we get into this debate.