Gene Doping

Yesterday, I interviewed for The Kojo Nnamdi Show (Washington, USA) on the subject of gene doping. It was one of the more interesting, on-air debates I have had on this subject and we covered a lot of ground. Other guests included:

Dr. Gary Wadler, Sports physician, clinical associate professor of medicine at New York University and expert on sports doping

Richard Pound, Chairman, World Anti-Doping Agency

Jose Canseco, Former all-star baseball player and author of the book “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big”

Osagie Obasogie, Project Director on Race, Disability, and Eugenics, Center for Genetics and Society.

It was particularly nice to debate with Gary Wadler and Richard Pound whom I have not met in person. It appeared to me that the gene doping debate is a rich subject for society, in part for the reasons i have argued elsewhere. It does seem to provoke alarm bells which suggest that more is at stake than the usual concerns surrounding doping. Genetic science and technology does not have the same connotations for people as drug use.

This is quite useful from my perspective because it could yield a new kind of debate about doping and even transform the way in which anti-doping takes place.