title: Ethics, Nanobiosensors and Elite Sport: The Need for a New Governance Framework.
abstract: Individual athletes, coaches and sports teams seek continuously for ways to improve performance and accomplishment in elite competition. New techniques of performance analysis are a crucial part of the drive for athletic perfection. This paper discusses the ethical importance of one aspect of the future potential of performance analysis in sport, combining the field of biomedicine, sports engineering and nanotechnology in the form of 'Nanobiosensors'. This innovative technology has the potential to revolutionise sport, enabling real time biological data to be collected from athletes that can be electronically distributed. Enabling precise real time performance analysis is not without ethical problems. Arguments concerning (1) data ownership and privacy; (2) data confidentiality; and (3) athlete welfare are presented alongside a discussion of the use of the Precautionary Principle in making ethical evaluations. We conclude, that although the future potential use of Nanobiosensors in sports analysis offers many potential benefits, there is also a fear that it could be abused at a sporting system level. Hence, it is essential for sporting bodies to consider the development of a robust ethically informed governance framework in advance of their proliferated use.
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK. Robert.Henryevans@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2466-615X
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McNamee
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK.
authors.forename: Owen
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Guy
mesh_terms: D056352:Athletes; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000941:ethics*; D003219:Confidentiality; D003625:Data Collection / Q000941:ethics* / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D062069:Inventions; D018907:Privacy; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D013177:Sports / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence
keywords: Data privacy; Ethics; Nanomedicine; Nanotechnology; Sport; Sports engineering