This is ethics bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warburton.

Ethics bites is a series of interviews on applied ethics produced in association with the Open University.

For more information about ethics bites and about the Open University,

go to open2.net.

The science of genetics is advancing faster than our moral intuitions can cope.

No longer our so-called designer babies, just a figment of the imagination, restricted to the realm of sci-fi movies.

The implications are huge and not just for babies in reproduction. We can modify our

genetic makeup as adults too. Take sport. In theory we can now manipulate

genes to make athletes run faster, jump higher, throw further. Does that mean sport

will evolve into a form of competition between quasi-robots?

And if so, would it matter? The distinguished and genetically unmodified Harvard professor

Michael Sandell believes that we should be extremely cautious

in our attempts to shape and master nature and indeed to master our shape.

Michael Sandel, welcome to Ethics Bides.

Thanks, it's good to be with you.

Now the topic we want to focus on today is genetic enhancement, specifically enhancement in the area of sport. I wonder if you could just

sketch the kinds of enhancements that are possible now and will be in the near future

using genetic techniques. As far as sports are concerned we hear a lot now about blood doping and

the use of steroids for performance enhancement in athletes. And in the not

distant future it will be possible to use various forms of gene therapy, for example, to enhance muscle.

And that I think is what in the area of sport will raise the most difficult questions.

I wonder if you could just give some general pointers as to why you're against enhancement.

...