Sport as a human right and genetic testing for talent identification: opportunities and risks

Resumo

Abstract: In today legal framework, sport is qualified as a human right. This has implications for the understanding of what is permissible in sport practice to ameliorate sport performance and selection of athletes. Genetic talent identification is highly questionable when framed within the human rights approach to sport, including élite sport. As a matter of fact, the qualification of sport as a human right makes it part of a bundle of interconnected rights among which the right to freely construct one’s personality is at center stage. How far can science go in identifying talents without violating fundamental rights? What kind of regulation should be provided in order to put scientific advances in this field on a human rights footing?