Abstract

Mike McNamee, professor of applied ethics at Swansea University, offers a critique on paralympism in the context of the International Paralympic Charter's four stated values: courage, determination, inspiration, and equality. He discusses two specific cases arising from paralympic sports involving amputation of limbs either to enhance sporting performance or to enable disability sport membership of an otherwise able-bodied person by the use of elective surgery. McNamee argues that disability sports organizations should ban such practices and better articulate their value base in order to preserve the integrity of disability sports.