Case Study: Sex Testing in Athletics As outlined in chapter 7, sex can be defined at several levels: chromosomal, gonada

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Case Study: Sex Testing in Athletics As outlined in chapter 7,sex can be defined at several levels: chromosomal, gonadal, andphenotypic. To this we can add psychological sex, the sex onebelieves themselves to be. Determining someone’s sex is a complexissue that is often difficult to resolve, as the case of BruceReimer (see Section 7.1) illustrates. In spite of the complexitysurrounding this issue, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAFF)still use sex testing on female athletes to determine whether theycan compete in athletic events as females. This has led to seriouspersonal, social, and legal issues, and the practice has beenwidely condemned and widely defended. Let’s examine two such caseshere. An Indian athlete, Santhi Soundarajan, finished second in the800-meter run at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, in 2006. After therace, she was asked to take a sex test. According to press reports,the tests showed that she “appeared to have abnormal chromosomes.”An official stated that she had more Y chromosomes than allowed. Asa result, she was stripped of her medal, banned from furthercompetition by the Indian Olympic Association, and shunned by herlocal community. Before the race in Doha, Santhi had competed in 8international competitions and won 12 medals. Sometime after thisincident, she attempted suicide. She now runs a training school forathletes in Tamil Nadu, India. Although the number and types oftests done on Santhi have not been revealed, such tests usuallyinvolve examination of the external genitals, a chromosomeanalysis, and measurement of hormone levels. Suppose you were onthe committee deciding whether Santhi could compete as a female.Consider each of the following hypothetical tests one at a time andbase your conclusions only on the results of that test. The resultsof a physical examination show she has female genitals. On thisbasis, would you allow her to keep her medal and compete as afemale in future races? Suppose the results of a chromosomalanalysis shows that she has an XY chromosome set and ischromosomally male. Would you allow her to keep her medal andcompete as a female? Lastly, suppose a test for hormone levelsshows that she has levels of the male sex hormone testosterone thatare higher than average for females but at least 10 times lowerthan the average for males. Would you allow her to keep her medaland compete in future races as a female? Now, put the results ofall three tests together, and consider them as a whole. What areyour conclusions? Now, let’s consider the case of a South Africanrunner, Caster Semenya, who won the 800-meter run at the WorldChampionships held in Berlin, Germany, in 2009. After the race, shewas asked to undergo sex testing. The IAAF stated that the testswere requested to ascertain whether she had a rare medicalcondition that gave her an unfair physical advantage. The nature ofthe tests and their results were not released, but press reportsindicate that she did not have ovaries or a uterus, and hadtestosterone levels intermediate between the averages for males andfemales. In the end, the IAAF agreed to keep the results of hertests confidential, and Caster was allowed to keep her medal andreturn to international competition in 2010. In both cases, whatthe IAAF considers the threshold for determining who can compete asa female has not been stated.Questions:1.Based on what we know about the test results in these cases, doyou think the outcome in each case was fair? Explain why or whynot.
2.Would you recommend that testing of female athletes becontinued to ensure that males do not compete as females? Or,should all such testing be banned..?