Category Archives: Bioethics

World Athletics’ Regulations on eligibility to compete in the female category (2009- now)

Posted on August 9, 2016 | 11 comments

casterAn almost complete (I hope!) list of my academic works on the topic of hyperandrogenism, and eligibility criteria for participation in the female category from 2009 up to now can be found here (email me to request PDFs of articles if you don’t have access):

Op-eds can be found here:

And you can find some of my early academic work on Caster Semenya here:

IMPORTANT!

Here you can download the original IAAF documents on Hyperandrogenism Regulations (they have been taken off website since suspension of regulation in July 2015 following CAS ruling)

IAAF guidelines Eligibility Hyperandrogenism May 2011

IAAF Hyperandrogenism Regulations – Appendices

MEDIA AND OUTREACH

Radio and Television Commentary and Expert Opinion

Al Jazeera Inside Story (May 2019, Television)

Commentary on CAS ruling against Caster Semenya:

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2019/05/athletics-rules-unfairly-target-caster-semenya-190502192112795.html

BBC Radio 5 (May 2019, Radio)

Commentary on CAS ruling against Caster Semenya:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0769g7f

 BBC Radio London (May 2019)

Commentary on CAS ruling against Caster Semenya:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0769g7f?fbclid=IwAR1BVHBoJc9R5TxHMJAZHkXNjLx5caiZYOw3StVnNhck81XJ6tqMuIQ2ajg

 BBC Inside Science (April 2019, Radio)

Commentary on experiments carried out at Yale University to reanimate pig heads:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00046sj

BBC Big Questions (June 2017, Television)

Panelist for episode “Is it ethical to interfere with the genome?”:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08vg018/the-big-questions-series-10-episode-20

 BBC News Hour Extra (July 2016, Radio)

Commentary for: “A flickering flame: Is the Olympic ideal dead?”:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04263n3

BBC World Service (March 2015, Radio)

Commentary on Dutee Chand’s case:

https://soundcloud.com/bbc-world-service/what-makes-a-woman  

BBC Have Your Say (March 2015, Radio)

Commentary on Dutee Chand’s case:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02m31rq

 

BBC Radio 4 News (March 2015, Radio)

Commentary on Dutee Chand’s case:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05mrc53

BBC World News (February 2015, Television)

Commentary on the case of eugenics victims receiving compensation for sterilization in Virginia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kDev7pyloM

My work on Caster Semenya has been quoted in mainstream media and other professional outlets:

IMPORTANT!

Here you can download the original IAAF documents on Hyperandrogenism Regulations (they have been taken off website since suspension of regulation in July 2015 following CAS ruling)

IAAF guidelines Eligibility Hyperandrogenism May 2011

IAAF Hyperandrogenism Regulations – Appendices

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Posted in Bioethics, Ethics & Sports, Women & Sports

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AEON Idea: “The solution to doping is to extend the blame beyond athletes”

Posted on July 22, 2016 | Leave a comment

In this AEON Idea, published on July 21st, and written in collaboration with the London Health & Society Hub, James Knuckles and I argue that the only way to make professional sports sustainable in the longer term and solve the problem of widespread doping is to transform the financial matrix that supports and endorses it.

How can we do that?

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Richard Virenque of the Festina team in the 1995 Tour de France. Photo by Anders/Flickr.

 

 

We can start with the idea that athletes should not be the only ones held to account (in the sense of liability) for doping. In practice, this means changing WADA’s system of strict liability for the athlete. To do so, we first need a stakeholder analysis to understand who the relevant stakeholders are for each team, athlete or sport. WADA could require teams or individual athletes and their entourages to submit something akin to a classic organisational chart, showing who reports to whom, who pays whom, and who makes decisions for whom.

The next step would be to assign liability to the appropriate stakeholder(s). Here, we think that the individuals identified through the stakeholder analysis as possessing the most power or control over the ‘organisation’ should be held personally liable for the doping of the athlete(s) under their control. In some cases, the organisations themselves will have corporate responsibility.

You can read the full piece here:

https://aeon.co/ideas/the-solution-to-doping-is-to-extend-the-blame-beyond-athletes

If you are interested in writing for the London Health & Society Hub you can send us a pitch for your Idea to:

londonhealthsocietyhubATgmail.com

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Dr Liz Dzeng from UCSF giving a seminar at King’s next Tuesday July 12th: ““Communication Pathologies in Do-Not-Resuscitate Discussions at the End of Life:”

Posted on July 6, 2016 | Leave a comment

When: 3:30pm Tuesday the 12th of July
Where: Room 3.1.1, East Wing King’s Building

In the next session of the Work in Progress (WiPs) seminar series Elizabeth (Liz) Dzeng, MD, PhD, MPH (http://profiles.ucsf.edu/elizabeth.dzeng) will present her paper:

“Communication Pathologies in Do-Not-Resuscitate Discussions at the End of Life: The Unintended Consequences of an Ideology of Patient Choice”

Abstract: The focus on patient autonomy in American medicine today highlights the importance of freedom and choice for patients make their own decisions. However, to truly honour patient autonomy, patients must adequately understand their situation and choices. Fifty-eight semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with internal medicine physicians at three hospitals in the US and one in the UK. I observed that two hospitals had policies that prioritized patient autonomy whereas the other two hospitals had policies that prioritized making decisions in the patient’s best interest. Particularly at hospitals where autonomy was prioritized, trainee physicians equated autonomy with giving a menu of choices. They were uncomfortable giving a recommendation based on clinical knowledge as they worried that that would infringe patient autonomy.

Bio:

Liz is Assistant Professor at UCSF in the Division of Hospital Medicine and Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology program. She is also a Visiting Fellow at the King’s College London Cicely Saunders Institute. She completed her PhD in Medical Sociology at the University of Cambridge at King’s College as a Gates Cambridge Scholar and a General Internal Medicine Post-Doctoral Clinical Research Fellow and Palliative Care Research Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Liz has published several opinion pieces for the Guardian, Wired UK, Huffington Post. You can find out more about her research and public engagement activities here:

http://elizabethdzeng.com/

Reminder: these seminars are part of the SSHM BIOS+ Research Group events and offer the opportunity to the members of the Department to discuss drafts of their work-in-progress and receive helpful feedback from colleagues before submission or before a presentation. The aim is to bring together the researchers in the Department and provide a locus for sharing expertise and knowledge in an informal setting. Junior researchers, and members of the BIOS + group, are especially encouraged to present and attend.

If you wish to attend please email Giulia Cavaliere (giulia.cavaliere@kcl.ac.uk), the convenor of the WiP seminar series, to ask for the draft of the paper.

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