Sport Medicine Ethics

This book explores the conceptual and practical issues that shape and define ethics in sports medicine. It establishes an important baseline for future academic and professional work in this area.

The ethics of sports medicine is an important emerging area within biomedical ethics. The professionalization of medical support services in sport and continuing debates around issues such as performance-enhancing technologies or the health and welfare of athletes mean that all practitioners in sport, as well as researchers with an interest in sports ethics, need to develop a clear understanding of the ethical aspects of the sport-medicine nexus. This timely collection of articles explores the conceptual and practical issues that shape and define ethics in sports medicine. Examining central topics such as consent, confidentiality, pain, doping and genetic technology, this book establishes an important baseline for future academic and professional work in this area. Review: Sport physicians are mostly dedicated practitioners doing everything possible to either keep their patients healthy or able to return to their sport or physical activity following injuries. However the zeal to heal and to assist patients/athletes may lead the sport physician into the realm of performance enhancement. Mike McNamee brings an enlightened, occasionally provocative and necessary debate to this arena. This book delves into many topics that particularly resonate in sport, such as confidentiality, doping and genetic enhancements. Elite sport is often the testing grounds for these important and complex ethical issues that will increasingly permeate through many facets of society. Dr Alan Vernec, Medical Director, WADA