Abstract des Autors

There are many fields of human endeavor – physical or creative – in which the individual's genetic make-up plays a decisive role in ultimate results. The ability to isolate and replicate certain genetic properties may well represent the ultimate in human enhancement. Gene doping, however, cannot be viewed in isolation. It occurs within the context of the complexity of the genome; the apparently contradictory pressures of elite sport and societal fairness; and the ever increasing information exchange facilitated by the internet. In hardly any other part of society is the idea of 'pushing the boundaries' as obvious and concrete as in modern elite sports: in competitive sports the boundaries of today are frequently the mediocrity of
tomorrow. In some disciplines such as cycling, the 100 meter sprint or the pole vault we can observe rates of performance enhancement between 24% and 221% since the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. As such, performance enhancement is a well-known phenomenon in elite sports. However, some methods of performance enhancement are prohibited and sanctioned as doping. This article argues that
doping in elite sports is highly functional; and that, as such, gene doping becomes a logical extension of this process. This paper will (1) give a brief description of main structural features of modern elite sports; (2) illustrate gene doping as 'functional illegality'; (3) identify the challenges in isolating molecular target points and address the serious consequences for modern sports and society; (4) consider gene doping in
the context of sport and wider society; and (5) seek to understand polycontexturality and the role of the internet in the future of elite sports. Verf.-Referat