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School of Media
Language & Music
University of the
West of Scotland

Ayr Campus
KA8 OSR
Scotland, UK

email@andymiah.net

t: +44 (0) 7962 716 616
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Human Enhancement Technologies &
the Bio-Politico-Ethics of Sport

Centre for Olympic Studies & Research, Loughborough University, Dec, 2006.

 

 

Over the last 5 years, the world has encountered considerable developments in human enhancement technologies. Yet, beyond their techical successes and failures, stem-cells, genetics, nanotech, and information technologies have all featured in the everyday sociologies of the future that abound within media and scholarly texts. The world of sport has encountered a wide range of these applications and the positioning of sports medicine in relation to experimental medical technologies invites rich and complex speculations on the development of performance in elite sport. In this paper, I discuss the role of bio(ethics) in cultural studies and its bearing on the human enhancement debate by drawing on Zylinska (2005).Within the UK, the most recent instantiation of this debate is through the public inquiry into Human Enhancement Technologies in Sport (Science and Technology Select Committee, 2006), the first evidence session of which heard from former 100m Olympic chamption Linford Christie. I discuss the political positioning of sports insitutions in relation to these technologies and how they reflect a broader bio-politico-ethical stance against human enhancement (Garnier, 2006; WADA, 2006).  Moreover, I suggest that this positioning is broadly indicative of a fundamental tension within the world of medicine over its legitimate role, and the ends of a commercial model for  human modification. These circumstances limit the possibility of open debate about the relevance and merit of anti-doping programmes and weaken the credibility of sport's judicial ethos, the latter of which is highlighted by responses from athletes to Linford Christie's involvement with the public inquiry. Finally, I conclude that these characteristics of sport's political economy inhibit nations from developing technoprogressive approaches to the human enhancement debate.

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resarch interests

art&design // bioethics // china // cyberculture // ethics // law // medicine // olympics // outer space // politics // public engagement with science // science // sport // technology

just published

Miah, A. (2008) Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty, FACT & Liverpool University Press.

Miah, A. (2008) A Deep Blue Grasshopper: Playing Games with Artificial Intelligence. Hale, B. (Ed) Philosophy Looks at Chess. Open Court Press, 13-23.

Miah, A. (2008). Posthumanism: A Critical History. In Gordijn, B. & Chadwick, R. 'Medical Enhancements and Posthumanity. Springer.

Miah, A. (2008, Oct) 17 Days in Beiing, Centre for Olympic Studies, Barcelona.

Miah, A. (2008, Aug 3) Enhance Athletes: It's Only Natural, Washington Post.

Miah, A. (2008, July 31) Inside the Mind of a Marathon man, Nature, 454, 583-4.

Miah, A. (2008) Paralympics 2.0, Bioethics Forum, The Hastings Center.

Miah, A. (2008) Letter to Utopia: A Reply to Bostrom, Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology, 2(1).

Miah, A. (2008) Engineering Greater Resilience or Radical Transhuman Enhancement, Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology, 2(1).

my next event

Washington, DC, USA i (Dec, 2008)
Genetic enhancement conference, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

London, UK i (November, 2008)
Human Body Enhancement, panel debate, Words on Monday, Nature and Kings Place Music Foundatio
.


in press

Miah, A. (2009) Justifying Human Enhancement: The Accumulation of Biocultural Capital. In: Wint, S. Ethical Futures. The Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (RSA), London.

Miah, A. (2009) 'Blessed are the Forgetful': The Ethics of Memory Modification in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In Shapshay, S. (Ed) Bioethics Through Film, Johns Hopkins University Press.

 

just published

Stein, D.J. (2008) Philosophy of Psychopharmacology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.118.

More, P. (2008) Enhancing Me: The Hope and the Hype of Human Enhancement. John Wiley & Sons, p.249.

Christian Lenk, Nils Hoppe & Roberto Andorno (2007) Ethics and Law of Intellectual Property: Current Problems in Politics, Science and Technology (Applied Legal Philosophy), Ashgate, p.84.

Zwart, N. H. (2007). "Genomics and self-knowledge: implications for societal research and debate." New Genetics and Society 26(2): 181-202.

Mitchell, C. B., E. D. Pellegrino, et al. (2007). Biotechnology and the Human Good. Washington, DC., Georgetown University Press.

   

interviews

Dec, 2008
BBC Radio 4,
Start the Week with Andrew Marr

Nov, 2008
The Scotsman (2-page profile)

Nov, 2008
The Independent on Sunday,
feature on Celebrity Culture

Oct, 2008
The Independent, Visionaries feature

Aug, 2008
ITN News,
The Telegraph,
Evening Standard,
Washington Post,

flashback

 

recent places
         
Edinburgh, UK i (November, 2008)
Sport Law Conference, Edinburgh University Law School .
  Liverpool, UK ia (15 Oct, 2008)
Book Preview: Human Futures, and BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival
  Florence, Italy i (25 Oct, 2008)
Genetic Enhancement via Genetic Selection: Bioethical and Biolegal Boundaries, Gene Doping International Symposium.
         
London, UK i (14 Oct, 2008)
BioCentre 2008 series: "People Power for the Third Millennium: Technology, Democracy and Human Rights, Symposoium on "Arts and Technology: the role of the arts in democratic policy making".
  Glasgow, Scotland i (30 Sept, 2008)
Our Cultural & Moral Commitment to Discover, Create, and Support New Life Forms, for LESS REMOTE: The Futures of Space Exploration: an Arts & Humanities Symposium, International Astronautical Congress, SEC, Glasgow, Scotland [abstract]
  Oxford, Scotland i (29 Sept, 2008)
Workshop on Innovative Media for the Digital Economy, Oxford E-Research Centre, Oxford University
         
Beijing, China c (5 Aug, 2008)
Chair and Speaker for panel symposium on Emergent Journalistic Cultures at the Olympics [outline]
  Olympia, Greece i (20 July, 2008)
Supervising Professor, International Olympic Acadmy 16th Postgraduate Seminar [Lecture Outlines].
  Leeds, UK c (16 July, 2008)
Ambush Media: Journalistic Freedom & Media Politics at the Beijing Olympics, Olympic Politics and Protest, Leeds Metropolitan University [abstract].
 
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