Revisiting Sex Classification in Athletics: Insights from Dr. Morgan Carpenter

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Text reads "New Journal Article by Dr Morgan Carpenter published in the American Journal of Bioethics asks the questions: Is It Ever OK to Reclassify Someone Out of Their Birth-Observed Sex Without Personal Consent? How Do We Manage Competing Methods of Classifying Sex?" There are two images- 1. Current cover of The American Journal of Bioethics- black with a white line drawing of a hand switching on a lamp. 2. Picture of Dr Morgan Carpenter speaking at a microphone. He has short brown hair and wears a white shirt, light brown jacket and glasses.

The American Journal of Bioethics has published a new journal article by Dr Morgan Carpenter.

The article raises some important questions following the 2024 Paris Olympics. Events at the 2024 Paris Olympics sadly highlight the inability of a categorical system (weight), additional to sex, to allay concerns regarding participation by athletes purported to have innate variations of sex characteristics (intersex variations/differences of sex development). Instead, abusive campaigns demonised athletes with long, prior histories of competition – and sought to impose methods of sex determination and classification that are not directly tested or applied at birth, and which do not universally apply.

In this article, Dr Carpenter asks if it is ever acceptable to reclassify someone out of their sex determined and classified at birth without their consent. He proposes that women athletes should always be able to compete, without preconditions, in their birth-observed, birth-assigned sex.

Here’s the link to read: https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2024.2399853