[ExI] Pistorius

[Dave Sill]

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 10:26 PM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

> I have been asked to write a piece on Oscar Pistorius participation in the
> olympics (and not the paralympics). Not being very sports interested
> myself, I would be curious to hear what more sports interested members of
> the list (if any) make of the whole thing.
>
> Normalization of enhancement, the olympics as a biomedical freak show,
> personality cult, or recognition of enormous tenacity?
>

Maybe too late, but here goes anyway...

I think Oscar Pistorius is remarkable and I support his efforts to compete
in the Olympics, but I can't get over the nagging feeling that his
artificial legs give him some kind of advantage over those with natural
legs. We have a situation analogous to a person with eyeglasses entering an
eyesight competition with documentation asserting that his glasses provide
no advantage.

While it would seem unjust to deny him the right to compete in the
Olympics, it would also be unjust to allow him to compete if he has an
advantage over the other competitors beyond superior natural ability/desire.

-Dave
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