Genetic testing for sporting cash cow

Baseballs' impresarios are happy to tear a 16-year-old from his country and family, but first they want proof he is the real goods.

I am writing this column on a holiday on the South Shore of Boston. In my brief stay, two things have stood out. First, internet connections in the USA, or at least in the outskirts of Beantown, can make "mediocre" sound like high praise. And second, Boston is baseball-besotted. This year the Red Sox could make it to the World Series, although the smart money is on teams like the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and St Louis Cardinals.

No one is betting on the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates. They have set a record for consecutive losing seasons -- 17 years. But its fans are hopeful. The old management had squandered the team's funds by buying stars at their peak and failing to invest in young players. A new management is buying and nurturing young talent. Which explains why the Pirates are so keen to recruit 16-year-old shortstop Miguel Angel Sano, the hottest prospect that US baseball scouts have seen in a long, long time.

But months after the international signing season began, Miguel Angel is still cooling his heels in the Dominican Republic waiting for a visa. Why? Because baseball's impresarios want to check whether he is really 16. If he is 19, as some suspect, he could be much less valuable. “In the eyes of baseball, there’s a huge difference between 16 and 19 years old,” an international scout told the New York Times. “It’s night and day." Baseball players are ready for the scrapheap by their early-30s, so every extra year of sporting life adds to their value.

There are two issues here. First of all, why isn't anyone questioning the wisdom of tearing 16-year-olds from their families, moving them to a foreign country where they cannot speak the language and giving them fabulous salaries? In most places they are not old enough to drive or vote; in professional sport, they are old enough to be cash cows.

But it is the genetic test for the cash cows which has created a stir in the US. Mr Sano was told to have DNA testing to check whether he is really the child of his parents and a bone scan to determine his age. His sister is also being tested as a cross-check. A lot is at stake. More than 300 Latin American players in the major and minor leagues are believed to have falsified birthdates since 2001. If he really is a youthful 16, he will have a good crack at a US$4 million contract.

This alarms some bioethicists -- they suspect that DNA testing is really being used for discriminatory purposes. As the Times notes, the new Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which is scheduled to take effect in November, prohibits US companies from making DNA testing a condition of employment. The information could be used to determine susceptibility to disease or ill-health. People with "bad genes" could find themselves unemployable and unable to get health insurance.

Some ethicists think that Mr Sano's case is different: it's a matter of protection against identity fraud. But others say that baseball authorities could use the genetic information to see whether they are getting a healthy player.

“It’s a tough area to figure morally and in all kinds of directions,” one scout said. “Can they test susceptibility to cancer? I don’t know if they’re doing any of that. But I know they’re looking into trying to figure out susceptibility to injuries, things like that. If they come up with a test that shows someone’s connective tissue is at a high risk of not holding up, can that be used? I don’t know. I do think that’s where this is headed.”

Genetic testing has other dangers as well. The results could reveal that the biological father is not the man married to the player's mother. The news could tear the player's family apart.

Since GINA has not come into effect yet, it is unclear whether it will be against US law to do genetic testing on prospective employees who are not US citizens. But it is sure that baseball clubs will be tempted to do so. The Pirates have invested US$5 million building an academy in the Dominican Republic to take advantage of its rich pool of talent. Genetic testing would help to ensure that they don't waste their money. The Times investigation revealed that teams have been conducting DNA tests on prospective players for several years. If genetic testing has stealthily made inroads into US sport, what is happening in China? Or in Africa, where scouts for European soccer clubs are scouring the continent for megastars?

In any case, the baseball player who set the record for most career grand slams of all time would never have passed a DNA test. His name was Lou Gehrig and he is remembered today as much for giving his name to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease which killed him, as his sporting prowess. Like other technologies, genetic testing for sporting ability could be a gigantic con job.

Michael Cook is the editor of MercatorNet.

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