Blood Testing of Athletes
Urine testing has become a familiar part of the sports landscape, but less so blood testing. However, the development of a blood test for human growth hormone has the potential to make blood testing of athletes more common. Matt Mitten considers legal aspects of such testing in a new paper on SSRN entitled “Legal Issues Arising Out of Blood Testing for Human Growth Hormone.” Here is the abstract:
To date, no U.S. or foreign court or arbitral tribunal has directly considered whether mandatory blood testing of athletes for banned performance-enhancing substances, including synthetic human growth hormone (rhGH), violates any internationally or nationally recognized individual rights to privacy or bodily integrity. To determine how this issue is likely to be resolved in litigation or arbitration, this article reviews the developing U.S. law and private international law established by arbitration awards regarding the legality of drug testing at the various levels of athletic competition as well as the compelled taking and testing of a person’s blood outside the context of athletics.
This fall, Marquette University Law School is fortunate to have Professor Michael R. Smith as a Robert E. Boden Visiting Professor of Law. Professor Smith is visiting from the University of Wyoming College of Law, where he is the Winston S. Howard Distinguished Professor of Law and the Director of Legal Writing. Professor Smith’s work in legal writing and written advocacy is nationally renowned. He has published a book on persuasive legal writing entitled Advanced Legal Writing: Theories and Strategies in Persuasive Writing (Aspen 2002). This book has received such interest and acclaim that the release of the second edition was the impetus for a 2008 conference, A Dialogue About Persuasion in Legal Writing & Lawyering, which was held at Rutgers Law School-Camden.