Center for American Progress

ADVISORY: Sports Doping and the Dawn of the Age of Enhancement
Press Release

ADVISORY: Sports Doping and the Dawn of the Age of Enhancement

Friday, August 08, 2008, 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Please join the Center for American Progress for a special presentation:

Panelists:

Arthur L. Caplan,

Emanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania, Advisor to FIFA Ethics and Technology Committee

Gary I. Wadler, MD,

Chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List and Methods Sub-Committee, World Anti-Doping Agency

Michael Werner, Esq.,

President of the Werner Group

Discussion moderated by:

Jonathan Moreno,

Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

As the Beijing Olympics get underway, one issue that is unfortunately on many minds is doping. In light of the scandals that have rocked major league baseball, the Tour de France, and past Olympic gold medalists, the Center for American Progress will host a discussion that aims to go past the headlines and put doping into a broader context. Sports doping is just one aspect of a larger discussion about human biological enhancement that has been taking place among those in the medical, bioethics, and sports communities.

There are now questions being raised about prosthetics that are designed to bring physically challenged athletes to a "normal" level but are actually making them "better than normal" and giving them an edge over their "able-bodied" competitors. Where do we draw the line between therapy and enhancement? What does biological enhancement mean for the nature of competition and human endeavor? Will biotechnology one day change competitive sport into an endless arms race of bionic superhuman spectacle? Most importantly, are steroid use and sports doping just a prelude to a coming age of widespread biological enhancement for all of us?

Join us for a lively discussion that brings together renowned bioethicist Arthur L. Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania, Gary I. Wadler, MD a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and Michael Werner, Esq., President of the Werner Group. The panel will be moderated by the Director of the Center for American Progress’s Bioethics Initiative and University of Pennsylvania professor, Jonathan Moreno.

Admission is free.

A light lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m.

Center for American Progress 1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor Washington, DC 20005 Map & Directions

Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center

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