Legal Basis for the Creation of a System for Preventing Gene Doping and Countering Genetic Modification in Sport

The paper is devoted to the study of the key factors underlying the building of a balanced system of legal norms aimed at preventing gene doping and countering the spread of genetic modifications of athletes. The paper explores the goals of countering doping as such and focuses on the dangers and potential harm to the sports of such a relatively new threat as gene doping. The authors discuss approaches to understanding gene therapy, as well as the prospects of embedding resistance to gene doping in existing legal mechanisms, including the possibility of using the mechanism of therapeutic exceptions (TUE). The current approaches to the definition of the essence of doping are studied and it is determined why gene therapy has a significant risk of being recognized as such. The risks and threats to the sphere of sport caused by the ongoing development of genetic technologies and the spread of their application are outlined. The possible consequences of the use of the results of genetic research, as well as the use of gene therapy, which may affect the field of sports, are discussed. The authors study issues of responsibility for the use of gene doping, subjects against which appropriate sanctions can be imposed, as well as the issue of the application of state coercion to individual subjects, without which the use of gene doping would be impossible. At the same time, the paper formulates the problems that need to be solved in the short term to ensure the preventive nature of the fight against gene doping in sport, and identifies the questions that society must answer to form a system of countering gene doping.