Analysis Of Michael Behar's Article: Will Genetics Destroy Sports
Why do people love sports so much? Sports bring out the competitive nature in people with the expectation that the game will be played fairly and honestly. Michael Behar argues that this beloved pastime is threatened by the unfair advantages and dangers of gene doping in his article “Will Genetics Destroy Sports?,” published in 2004 in Discover magazine. Behar worked hard to establish his credibility through reputable sources and properly used genetic therapy vernacular and provided a logical argument with the assistance of experiments and statistics; however, Behar missed a key component to supporting his claim that pulls apart the effectiveness of his argument. In his article, Behar examines the effect of the misuse of gene therapy and
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Behar did extensive homework to write an effective article to make up for his lack of credentials, and he successfully did so with the use of numerous authoritative sources and relevant terms. One major contributing source was H. Lee Sweeney, a professor of physiology and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who Behar quotes and references for his gene therapy studies. “Today Sweeney … scrutinize[s] the rats and mice he has injected with IGF-I genes” (156) is one such example of how Sweeney and his research is incorporated. Behar also turns to sources like the World Anti-Doping Agency; the Food and Drug Administration; Johnny Huard, a professor of molecular genetics, biochemistry, and bioengineering at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine; and others. Filling his article with correctly used terms relevant to the subject matter and explanations of difficult words furthered to establish author to reader trust, including readers who do not know much about biotechnology. Phrases like “introduce the dystrophin gene by hitching it to the DNA of a virus” (Behar 156) and “synthetic erythropoietin, or EPO, a chemical naturally produced by the kidneys … flushes fatigued muscles with oxygen” (Behar 157) explain a process and define a chemical in simple enough terms to understand what Behar and his sources tried to
Behar did extensive homework to write an effective article to make up for his lack of credentials, and he successfully did so with the use of numerous authoritative sources and relevant terms. One major contributing source was H. Lee Sweeney, a professor of physiology and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who Behar quotes and references for his gene therapy studies. “Today Sweeney … scrutinize[s] the rats and mice he has injected with IGF-I genes” (156) is one such example of how Sweeney and his research is incorporated. Behar also turns to sources like the World Anti-Doping Agency; the Food and Drug Administration; Johnny Huard, a professor of molecular genetics, biochemistry, and bioengineering at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine; and others. Filling his article with correctly used terms relevant to the subject matter and explanations of difficult words furthered to establish author to reader trust, including readers who do not know much about biotechnology. Phrases like “introduce the dystrophin gene by hitching it to the DNA of a virus” (Behar 156) and “synthetic erythropoietin, or EPO, a chemical naturally produced by the kidneys … flushes fatigued muscles with oxygen” (Behar 157) explain a process and define a chemical in simple enough terms to understand what Behar and his sources tried to