Maria José Martinez Patino couldn't sleep before her first race at the 1985 World University Games in Kobe, Japan. She was scheduled to run the 60-meter hurdles at noon, but she wasn't even sure she would be allowed to compete. Earlier that day the 24-year-old Spanish record holder had reported as instructed to "Sex Control," where cells were scraped from the inside of her cheek to determine the pattern of her sex chromosomes. She had already passed such a "sex check" at the Helsinki World Championships in 1983. She had forgotten to bring her "certificate of femininity" to Japan, however, and so had to be retested.

What concerned Maria was that, a few hours after the test, an official informed her that her results were abnormal. He told her not to worry, though, offering that it was probably just a technical problem and that she'd have follow-up tests in the morning.

But Maria did worry. She lay awake wondering what could have caused her new test to go awry. Was it leukemia, the disease that had killed her brother years before? Was it AIDS?

For the follow-up tests, Maria was in and out of the hospital in five minutes. The doctors spoke only Japanese, and no one said a word to her. It wasn't until she was being driven to the stadium for her race that Maria was told that she would not be permitted to compete. She had failed the sex test.

Meet officials had already discussed the news with the doctor from her sports federation in Spain. Together they had decided that Maria should fake an injury in warm-up, so that no one would suspect the real reason for her withdrawal. Stunned, Maria did as she was told. She feigned an injury to her foot and withdrew from the meet.

Back in Spain, endocrinologists told Maria that she had been born with the normal number of chromosomes, 46, but her sex chromosomes were X and Y, making her genetically a male. She had developed as a female because of a condition called androgen insensitivity, which prevented her cells from recognizing the testosterone in her blood. So, although she had Y chromosomes in her cells, as an embryo her cells did not get the signal to develop as a male. Most people with this condition do not find out about it until they are adults, when they try to have children.

1. Should Maria have been asked to withdraw? What else might have been done?
2. If you were acting as Maria Patino's attorney in a suit against officials of the World University Games, what points would you make on her behalf?
3. If you were representing the committee officials, what points would you raise?
4. Should athletic organizations use genetic sexual identity as the only basis for identifying a person's sex? Why or why not?
5. Should Maria be allowed to compete as a female? Why or why not?