Yesterday, we wrapped up Day 1 of the 2nd World Conference
on the Hormonal and Genetic Basis of Sexual
Differentiation Disorders and Hot Topics in Endocrinology. There
were several good panels with excellent presenters, though (as
predicted) I had many “fish out of water” moments. The high point of the day, for me, came
at the end, when a panel chair posed a provocative question: what sort of
recommendation, if any, would the audience make to the IOC, if given the chance,
about whether intersex individuals such as Caster Semenya could compete in women's athletic competitions?
Most of those who spoke prefaced their comments with the caveat that insufficient information had been released about the Semenya case for the group to opine about her case, specifically. But some felt that medical and scientific experts should make general recommendations, and that the recommendation should be to allow intersex individuals to compete in women's sports in cases like Semenya's, where the individual identified as female and has been raised as a female. Some argued that many athletes possess genetic advantages that give them superior athletic skill, and that new genetic sources of such traits are being quickly discovered with new scientific advancements. Given that reality, they asked, why should intersex be singled out as a genetic competitive advantage to be prohibited?
Others would differentiate conditions likely to confer athletic advantage from those unlikely to do so, and condition athletic eligibility accordingly (more on this to follow later). Finally, some commenters felt that the issue of intersex in sport was not a medical or scientific question, but a social one. Competitive sport, according to this line of thinking, is based on sometimes-artificial distinctions about what constitutes “fair play.” Those distinctions depend on social notions of fairness and definitions of desirable competitiveness as judged by sports governing bodies – not on medical or scientific opinion. As such, it is not the place of medical or scientific experts to make such recommendations.
Interested readers might want to read Gina Kolata’s article in Friday’s New York Times on the IOC meeting, which also discusses some of these issues. That’s all for now. The beach is just outside the door, and I haven’t even seen it yet – a lapse that I hope to correct later today. But I have had some mojitos and Cuban food (in addition to learning some new things) so all is not lost.
Comments