Work

Foreword: the enhanced games—human enhancement, risk, and harm reduction in a post-doping era

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The proposed Enhanced Games have emerged at a moment of increasing discussion and debate within sport, medicine, and public health regarding how human enhancement is conceptualised, governed, and regulated. By explicitly permitting the use of enhancement drugs (e.g., testosterone and human growth hormone) within an elite sporting context, the Enhanced Games challenge the prohibition-based anti-doping paradigm that has shaped international sport governance for decades. In doing so, the Enhanced Games draw renewed attention to long-standing but unresolved questions concerning bodily autonomy, acceptable risk, informed consent, commercialisation, and the role of harm reduction in contexts where enhancement practices already exist.

Source: Harm Reduction Journal

DOI: 10.1186/s12954-026-01448-4

Authors: Imran Khan, Luke Cox, Kyle T. Ganson, Timothy Piatkowski

Institutions: The University of Queensland, Swansea University, University of Toronto

Language: English

Topic: Doping in Sports

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,290