Rights of Disabled Individuals in Sporting Competitions

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An ethical issue that has been on the rise in recent years is the rights of disabled individuals in sports competition. Much controversy has surrounded Paralympic champion sprinter Oscar Pistorius over whether or not he should have been allowed to participate in the London Olympics or not. The fight between him and the International Olympic Committee was ultimately over the IOC believing that his running blades gave him an unfair advantage over Olympians. On the other hand, Pistorius and supporters argued that his blades did not give him and advantage over the competition. Although there is the notion that disabled people who use technological advances may have an advantage over able-bodied athletes, the results of various studies conducted on this issue are inconclusive. Therefore, there should be no reason why disabled athletes should not be allowed to compete against abled-bodied athletes. Just because one has prosthetic limbs does not mean they should not be forbidden to participate in the Olympics or in any other type of sporting event.
There seems to be few reasons as to why disabled athletes should not able to participate in sports competitions with able-bodied athletes. Recently the U.S. Department of Education issued a ‘landmark moment’ for disabled student athletes. These new guidelines instilled got rid of the previously vague policy and offers more specifics as to how school can include students with disabilities in sports programs (Williams, 2013). These new guidelines can in a sense deliver what Title IX did for women in sports to these disabled athletes. These guidelines state that schools have to make reasonable modifications for students with disabilities who are otherwise qualified to play on mainstream teams a...

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Athletes with disabilities should be able to participate in sporting event and in the Olympics if they qualify. In the case of Oscar Pistorious he was originally banned to participate in the Olympics because of supposed unfair advantages of the blade runner. The blade runners themselves have been around for several years now. You do not see disabled athletes such as Pistorius breaking any 400-meter dash records. People make these “cheetah legs” out to be this type of technology that lets a human run faster. Moreover, various research done on the blades were only on possible advantages that Pistorus had, not any of the disadvantages they put him it. As aforementioned, if disabled were breaking world, records or even coming close to them it would be one thing, but they are not. Therefore, the disabled have the right to compete in direct sporting competition.

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