Like everybody else this blog is fiercely hostile to doping in sport and favours severe censure of those who engage in it; not just the competitors, but the dopers who feed them and the systems which allow it to happen. But it is not right to punish the innocent because some, even most, are guilty. That it not rough justice, it is not justice at all and it is most certainly an abuse of human rights in the broad sense.
When it comes to Paralympic sport the issue is even more sensitive. Nothing has done more to repair the self- esteem of people with disabilities and to re-include them into normal active life (how short a time ago they were just labeled a cripple!) than the wonderful spectacle of the Paralympic games. They have been wonderful for all those whose bodies are not perfect and wonderful for all those whose bodies are, who who now hold these new heroes and heroines in the highest honour and admiration.
To a Paralympic athlete competing at all is a double triumph of will over adversity and to be excluded through no fault is mean and wrong. The IPC did not intend it that way; its frustrations and anger are justified and its intentions are good. Above all it has to support all the clean athletes who are by far the majority, so that they are not unfairly beaten in competition by cheats. But some of the Russian athletes are clean and to compete means more to them and is perhaps more of a personal triumph than with any other national team. To deny them is to be cruel without purpose, because it is upon these clean competitors that modern Russia will have to rebuild its sporting structures in a quite different format to its Soviet heritage.
The IPC showed decisive authority but in so doing exposed a lack of judgement. This is a great pity. Another way to upbraid Russia should be found.