ABSTRACT
Since the turn of the 21st century, concerns about the impact of gene therapy on sports have gathered speed and a number of thought-provoking books have been produced. Andy Miah’s ground-breaking work, Genetically Modified Athletes: Biomedical Ethics,Gene Doping and Sport (2004) drew attention to many problems and prospects that potentially would make anti-doping impotent if the ethically laden endeavour should not become unethical. For instance, he mentions “that muscle biopsy may be the only way to detect some forms of genetic modification in sport, which would be a significant challenge for anti-doping policy given the invasiveness of such a procedure” (Miah, 2004, p. 34). If Miah’s assertion is correct that muscle biopsies are needed to detect gene doping this would certainly, as he implies, pose a huge threat to the integrity of anti-doping.
