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Ethics expert: Allow safe doping in athletics

The editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics, Julian Savulescu, has repeated his call to allow "safe physiological performance enhancement" in athletics.

The Professor of Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford spoke to 5 Live after a World Anti-Doping Agency independent commission report said Russia should be banned from athletics competition for running a "state-supported" doping programme.

Professor Savulescu explained: "Why not allow athletes simply to modify their physiology, just as they take glucose and water, and focus on the harmful super-physiological excesses which are very easy to pick up? You don't need sophisticated blood passports to pick up large doses of testosterone, growth hormone or EPO."

He also told Rhod Sharp that independent testing was needed and countries couldn't be relied upon to "police their own athletes".

This clip is originally from Up All Night on Wednesday 11 November 2015.

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