[extropy-chat] Plan to allow transsexuals into Games on back burner

[David Lubkin]

Mike wrote:

>so long as no government agency is involved in ordering anyone to be 
>altered (there should be some sort of lie detector test to affirm that the 
>athlete underwent the procedure of their own free will) then the whole 
>eugenics thing can be avoided.

Adrian wrote:

>Noble sentiment; easily bypassed in practice.
>
>"No, honest, I did it of my own free will.  I freely chose not to be 
>relegated to a life of drudge labor which I would be if I didn't do 
>this.  But that was my choice."  ...and you don't even have to have the 
>government enforcing it; such a situation could happen
>in the USA despite the government not providing any coercion, save 
>insufficient outreach to the poor about educational opportunities and 
>their role in paths to better lives.

Consent has been an issue for decades. How much say in their participation 
or training had athletes in the Soviet Union, PRC, Nazi Germany, East 
Germany (those famous women swimmers), Fascist Italy, Saddam's Iraq, etc. had?

Also, there may have been honest, voluntary, informed consent that we, 
well-fed and comfortable, would be appalled by. Throughout history, people 
have sacrificed their lives, health, or happiness for the sake of their 
family. Or, as parents, sacrificed one child for the sake of the others.


-- David Lubkin.