Gene doping is defined by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) as "the non-therapeutic use of cells, genes, genetic elements, or of the modulation of gene expression, having the capacity to improve athletic performance".
Gene doping has been prohibited by Wada since 2003 and is included in its 2004 World Anti-Doping Code.
Prof Miah is visiting the University of Otago, and from this Tuesday will take part in a two-day international symposium on the "Future of Fairness", which has been organised by Genetics Otago and the university's Centre for Law and Policy in Emerging Technologies.
Prof Miah said the extent of so-called "cheating" by recent winners of the Tour de France showed prohibition of performance-enhancing drugs had not worked.
In some circles, anything that looked like "doping" was condemned as "absolutely awful".
But many of the assumptions behind such bans, including the ban on gene doping, should be critically examined, he said.
Gene doping was, in fact, part of the growing human desire for enhancement and improvement, not only in sport, but also in "human culture generally".
"We take all sorts of things to make ourselves more resilient."
In an essay, titled "Gene Doping: A reality, but not a threat", he asks whether the decision to treat gene doping as "morally impermissible" would stand the test of time.
"I envisage a future for humanity where gene transfer- and many other forms of human enhancement - is sufficiently safe for its widespread use and where it becomes an integral part of our pursuit of good health.
"Indeed, undertaking such modifications would be considered as normal as body piercing or cosmetic surgery."
Prof Miah holds the chair of Ethics and Emerging Technologies at the University of the West of Scotland, and has written a book titled Genetically Modified Athletes (2004).
Prof Ronald Green, a leading US-based specialist in genetic and biomedical ethics, Prof Miah, and Otago University Associate Prof David Gerrard, a former member of the Wada medical committee, will give free public lectures from 6pm at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery next Tuesday in association with the symposium.
