the Informer

Gene doping is completely changing competitive sports, at the molecular level.

Athletes today are bigger, faster, stronger and more obsessed with winning than ever before, but in the 21st century, “natural talent” is becoming as obsolete as newspapers.

Developed as a treatment for genetic diseases, “Gene therapy installs a working copy of a ‘broken’ gene to fix genetic diseases,” according to North County Times.

Athletes have recently taken an interest in the immense physical benefits of gene-therapy for their own use, injecting drugs that manipulate their very DNA so that they are more like “super humans” than mere athletes.

Repoxygen is one of the gene-doping drugs suspected to be growing in popularity among pro-athletes.

A catalyst to enhance production of erythropoietin, the protein that stimulates red blood cell production, “blood doping” can boost athletic performance at the very heart of an athlete.

Discovery News described blood-doping as, “Turning on molecular switches inside the body’s own DNA to produce more oxygen-carrying blood or creating bigger muscles.”
DNA therapy is still being researched and considered risky.

Several immune-deficient patients who were treated with gene-therapy developed cancer; in lab experiments several animals died from blood-doping according to Discovery News.

In 2003 the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) officially outlawed the practice of gene doping, but until recently, scientists were unable to identify genetically enhanced athletes because the drug was encoded in their DNA.

This was a cause for great concern during the 2008 and 2010 Olympic games, where Chinese doctors were rumored to have offered gene-therapy treatments to athletes before the Olympic games in Beijing.

According to Discovery News, new research to detect gene doping showed that “monkeys genetically doped with the blood-boosting hormone erythropoietin have a modified form of EPO in their blood.”

Effective methods of gene-doping detection are becoming a reality just in time for the 2012 Olympic games, but there are still many proponents of the future of gene-therapy as a supplement to athletic competition.

Those in favor of gene-therapy stress it’s potential to minimize discrimination based on natural athleticism.

“Winners are often born with highly favorable genetics, including, in some cases, unusually large lung capacity,” said American ethicist Professor Ronald Green.

A surprising number of people agree with the notion that gene-doping could force sports to be fairer, discriminate less and shift the focus from obsessive winning.

Although this issue is far from a resolution, history illustrates that the American public disapproves of the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

In a time when technology is making every facet of our lives less “natural,” sports are still very much a humbling, human experience.

Although sports are indeed selective and unfair, especially at high levels of competition, the natural ability of a prodigal athlete to excel as a master of their sport is what captivates the masses to this day.

Steroids, multi-million dollar team franchises and an increasing obsession with winning and profits are diverting the integrity of athletes and competition today; it is my belief that gene doping will only expedite this dissolution of true athleticism.

Although the notion of gene doping for both medical and athletic purposes is fascinating, the risks and overwhelming potential that the “superhuman” DNA manipulation will be abused is alarming.

Gene doping will likely continue to grow into an even bigger problem as research offers a more complete evaluation of the technology’s risks and potential benefits.
The availability of gene doping drugs on the black market will be an immense challenge for Wada and sports fans alike.

Many people like myself are simply fed up with athletes who cheat their way to the top, some even willing to die by trying gene-doping, so long as it earns them a shot at a gold medal.

I believe that gene doping should be implemented for medical purposes, curing diseases and affording people an incredible second chance at life; not feeding the media frenzy and disintegration of athletics that defines pro-sports as a lucrative industry today.