Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sports Essay
Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sport.
Performance enhancing drugs have become such a big issue in modern sport. It has been the headline of the world’s athletic events for the past decade, and is still a current problem being disputed. In this paper I will argue that the use of Steroids, or any performance enhancing drug is both illegal and cheating, and that by no means should be allowed in sports at any competitive level. Before I make my argument I will give an explanation of the opposing idea, pro-steroid use, and allow you to evaluate each side.
One argument that is made is the increase that could be made in the entertainment field of sports, most directly associated with professional sports. With the use of performance enhancing drugs, it is proven that size, strength, and speed increase in all the right ways. With the physical …show more content…
attributes becoming bigger and more impressive, the numbers and statistics show to do the same. When Mark McGuire was on his home run hitting spree, the Cardinals were selling out almost every game. People want to see the people that are breaking the records and putting up the big numbers, and they are willing to pay for it.
When other players see that the steroids are working for their fellow athletes, they are tempted to use them as well. There really isn’t a reason not to be interested in taking drugs when you are a fellow pro athlete, and you are falling further back in the statistic standings while everyone who is juicing is rising up the charts. Why shouldn’t they try to make things even?
There is no question that bigger numbers put more fans in the stands. But now fans and teams take the prospective and ethical side against steroid users. Take Barry Bonds for example. Three years ago, when he set the single season home run record, he was every body’s favorite player in baseball. Now that it is revealed that he possibly, probably, used steroids he isn’t even playing for a team. How can it be that the League’s all time home run leader can’t even find a squad to DH or even pinch hit for? It is because the fans and the organizations care more about the honesty and hard work than tainted numbers.
Another argument would be the probable surge in medical research for physical health. One of the big things that hold medical researchers back when conducting a study is finding something or someone to experiment on. Athletes are ready made for these experiments. They are, stereo typically, in excellent shape, health is closely monitored, and in this particular case many athletes would be willing to be the guinea pig.
A close example is the contribution that automobile racing has made to the design and technological advances for the common car. The odds are that if it weren’t for automobile racing, the cars that we drive in today would not be nearly as advanced, or safe. If we could use this same concept in the physical health field, who knows what medical researchers could come up with for us.
In reply to this argument, you can already say that there has been trial and error already done. Doctors have already seen what steroids can do to a person’s body. The drugs do increase muscle size and strength, but what about after? When off the steroids, results drop rapidly. Not only do they deteriorate at the inside of one’s body but they make injury much more probable. It seems, to me, that the increase of injury risk counteracts with the results from the steroids. If an athlete is injured, stronger or not, they aren’t going to produce better numbers The simple argument of how drugs are voluntary is another reason. Steroids are no more harmful than tobacco or alcohol. There is no rule stating that athletes cannot smoke tobacco, chew tobacco, nor drink any alcoholic beverages. To take away the choice of using performance enhancing drugs is paternalistic and unconstitutional. Who are we to tell someone that they cannot take an enhancing drug because they might harm themselves? We therefore would have to do the same with almost every decision in their life. Should we control what they do, what they eat, and what they drink as well? A reply to this could be that they are doing the drugs without knowing the consequences. Steroids are marketed just like any other products. When presented, they seem to be the magic pill and the solution to all prospective athletes’ problems. Flaws are rarely publicized and exposed. Therefore it is in our best interest to make sure that athletes are not taking harmful drugs to enhance their performance. They must be first concerned with their well being off the fields or courts. Sports are not everything in life, though some may disagree. I will now give my reasons for banning any use of performance enhancing drugs in sports. I will start off with the basic ethical principles in sport. One value is the protection of the athlete’s health. Many researchers have studied the effects of performance enhancing drugs, both the effects of drug as a performance enhancer, and the drug as a danger to human health. Studies have shown the risks that come with the use of steroids. Some symptoms being: premature balding or hair loss. Mood swings; including anger, aggression, and depression. Hallucinations, paranoia, sleeping problems, nausea, vomiting, trembling, high blood pressure damaging blood vessels, aching joints, greater chance of injuring muscles and tendons, liver damage, urinary problems, shortening of final adult height, increased risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer. Less serious side effects include acne, purple or red spots on the body, swelling of legs and feet, persistent bad breath, and less commonly jaundice, or yellowing of the skin. (Dowshen, 2) The leagues and fans care about their athletes. Professional athletes are icons and role models to younger children, high school and college athletes are the people of tomorrow. We don’t want to see them get hurt or harm their body at the expense of bigger muscles and hitting a few more home runs. If drugs were legal in sports, it is obvious that it would get out of control and the health risks that already come along with the sport would increase ten-fold. My second reasoning is the cheating factor of the performance drugs.
In sport, it is meant to be performed such that each team, competitor has an equal chance to win. Cheating is considered the most disrespectful act that a player can do to both his opponent and the game itself. Acts of cheating are seen as acts that give a player an advantage over their challenger in some way. An example could be point shaving, where you pay a member of the opposing team so play at a lesser level or perform a deliberate act that will hurt their team and not allow them to score as much. Another example is corking a baseball bat, making the bat much denser so that when the ball is hit it travels further. Teams have even been caught modifying facilities to work to their advantage. Such as wetting a football field down so that the opposing teams speed advantage does not play as large of a factor in the game. The use of steroids is on a different, much more severe level, of cheating than all of these. It has gone to the point where the athlete has mutated his/her body to gain size, speed, strength, and an increase in their athletic
performance. When an athlete gains these advantages, they are gaining an advantage of the sport itself. The sport is designed for a specific purpose. Usually the guidelines are not too extreme, but when given superior athletes, the rules and boundaries should change. That would be the logical thing. If players are now hitting 73 home runs a year because they got bigger and stronger via enhancement drugs, the field should be moved back for them. If they are going to such measures to get a gain on the game itself, the game should have the right to do to the same, which is unfortunate because it cannot be done; there are too many honest players and athletes still participating. This plays into another reason for the ban of steroids; the lack of respect for the history of the sport itself. Rules were prepared, records were set, and legends were made in the sport. Records have now been tarnished; names were both made, and ruined at the despair of performance enhancing drugs. It is not fair to the original record setters and legends to have their names blemished behind a dishonest selfish cheater. The world of professional sports had to see something of this nature coming. With free agency, eye-popping contracts, and ridiculous payrolls, of course athletes of the future were going to try to find a way to gain an unfair advantage so that they can make it. It’s true that the players with the bigger numbers get paid the bigger dollars as well. There is insurmountable pressure put on athletes today to perform, and it is funneling down into the youth systems such as the NCAA, and even high school students. In conclusion, the use of performance enhancing drugs needs to be controlled and eventually diminished. It has been a disrespectful era to fans, history, and the sport in itself. The problem has been assessed well enough for now, but more work needs to be done so that athletes are performing for the fun of sport and performing at their abilities as a result of their hard work and devotion, not the needle.
Performance enhancing drugs have become such a big issue in modern sport. It has been the headline of the world’s athletic events for the past decade, and is still a current problem being disputed. In this paper I will argue that the use of Steroids, or any performance enhancing drug is both illegal and cheating, and that by no means should be allowed in sports at any competitive level. Before I make my argument I will give an explanation of the opposing idea, pro-steroid use, and allow you to evaluate each side.
One argument that is made is the increase that could be made in the entertainment field of sports, most directly associated with professional sports. With the use of performance enhancing drugs, it is proven that size, strength, and speed increase in all the right ways. With the physical …show more content…
attributes becoming bigger and more impressive, the numbers and statistics show to do the same. When Mark McGuire was on his home run hitting spree, the Cardinals were selling out almost every game. People want to see the people that are breaking the records and putting up the big numbers, and they are willing to pay for it.
When other players see that the steroids are working for their fellow athletes, they are tempted to use them as well. There really isn’t a reason not to be interested in taking drugs when you are a fellow pro athlete, and you are falling further back in the statistic standings while everyone who is juicing is rising up the charts. Why shouldn’t they try to make things even?
There is no question that bigger numbers put more fans in the stands. But now fans and teams take the prospective and ethical side against steroid users. Take Barry Bonds for example. Three years ago, when he set the single season home run record, he was every body’s favorite player in baseball. Now that it is revealed that he possibly, probably, used steroids he isn’t even playing for a team. How can it be that the League’s all time home run leader can’t even find a squad to DH or even pinch hit for? It is because the fans and the organizations care more about the honesty and hard work than tainted numbers.
Another argument would be the probable surge in medical research for physical health. One of the big things that hold medical researchers back when conducting a study is finding something or someone to experiment on. Athletes are ready made for these experiments. They are, stereo typically, in excellent shape, health is closely monitored, and in this particular case many athletes would be willing to be the guinea pig.
A close example is the contribution that automobile racing has made to the design and technological advances for the common car. The odds are that if it weren’t for automobile racing, the cars that we drive in today would not be nearly as advanced, or safe. If we could use this same concept in the physical health field, who knows what medical researchers could come up with for us.
In reply to this argument, you can already say that there has been trial and error already done. Doctors have already seen what steroids can do to a person’s body. The drugs do increase muscle size and strength, but what about after? When off the steroids, results drop rapidly. Not only do they deteriorate at the inside of one’s body but they make injury much more probable. It seems, to me, that the increase of injury risk counteracts with the results from the steroids. If an athlete is injured, stronger or not, they aren’t going to produce better numbers The simple argument of how drugs are voluntary is another reason. Steroids are no more harmful than tobacco or alcohol. There is no rule stating that athletes cannot smoke tobacco, chew tobacco, nor drink any alcoholic beverages. To take away the choice of using performance enhancing drugs is paternalistic and unconstitutional. Who are we to tell someone that they cannot take an enhancing drug because they might harm themselves? We therefore would have to do the same with almost every decision in their life. Should we control what they do, what they eat, and what they drink as well? A reply to this could be that they are doing the drugs without knowing the consequences. Steroids are marketed just like any other products. When presented, they seem to be the magic pill and the solution to all prospective athletes’ problems. Flaws are rarely publicized and exposed. Therefore it is in our best interest to make sure that athletes are not taking harmful drugs to enhance their performance. They must be first concerned with their well being off the fields or courts. Sports are not everything in life, though some may disagree. I will now give my reasons for banning any use of performance enhancing drugs in sports. I will start off with the basic ethical principles in sport. One value is the protection of the athlete’s health. Many researchers have studied the effects of performance enhancing drugs, both the effects of drug as a performance enhancer, and the drug as a danger to human health. Studies have shown the risks that come with the use of steroids. Some symptoms being: premature balding or hair loss. Mood swings; including anger, aggression, and depression. Hallucinations, paranoia, sleeping problems, nausea, vomiting, trembling, high blood pressure damaging blood vessels, aching joints, greater chance of injuring muscles and tendons, liver damage, urinary problems, shortening of final adult height, increased risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer. Less serious side effects include acne, purple or red spots on the body, swelling of legs and feet, persistent bad breath, and less commonly jaundice, or yellowing of the skin. (Dowshen, 2) The leagues and fans care about their athletes. Professional athletes are icons and role models to younger children, high school and college athletes are the people of tomorrow. We don’t want to see them get hurt or harm their body at the expense of bigger muscles and hitting a few more home runs. If drugs were legal in sports, it is obvious that it would get out of control and the health risks that already come along with the sport would increase ten-fold. My second reasoning is the cheating factor of the performance drugs.
In sport, it is meant to be performed such that each team, competitor has an equal chance to win. Cheating is considered the most disrespectful act that a player can do to both his opponent and the game itself. Acts of cheating are seen as acts that give a player an advantage over their challenger in some way. An example could be point shaving, where you pay a member of the opposing team so play at a lesser level or perform a deliberate act that will hurt their team and not allow them to score as much. Another example is corking a baseball bat, making the bat much denser so that when the ball is hit it travels further. Teams have even been caught modifying facilities to work to their advantage. Such as wetting a football field down so that the opposing teams speed advantage does not play as large of a factor in the game. The use of steroids is on a different, much more severe level, of cheating than all of these. It has gone to the point where the athlete has mutated his/her body to gain size, speed, strength, and an increase in their athletic
performance. When an athlete gains these advantages, they are gaining an advantage of the sport itself. The sport is designed for a specific purpose. Usually the guidelines are not too extreme, but when given superior athletes, the rules and boundaries should change. That would be the logical thing. If players are now hitting 73 home runs a year because they got bigger and stronger via enhancement drugs, the field should be moved back for them. If they are going to such measures to get a gain on the game itself, the game should have the right to do to the same, which is unfortunate because it cannot be done; there are too many honest players and athletes still participating. This plays into another reason for the ban of steroids; the lack of respect for the history of the sport itself. Rules were prepared, records were set, and legends were made in the sport. Records have now been tarnished; names were both made, and ruined at the despair of performance enhancing drugs. It is not fair to the original record setters and legends to have their names blemished behind a dishonest selfish cheater. The world of professional sports had to see something of this nature coming. With free agency, eye-popping contracts, and ridiculous payrolls, of course athletes of the future were going to try to find a way to gain an unfair advantage so that they can make it. It’s true that the players with the bigger numbers get paid the bigger dollars as well. There is insurmountable pressure put on athletes today to perform, and it is funneling down into the youth systems such as the NCAA, and even high school students. In conclusion, the use of performance enhancing drugs needs to be controlled and eventually diminished. It has been a disrespectful era to fans, history, and the sport in itself. The problem has been assessed well enough for now, but more work needs to be done so that athletes are performing for the fun of sport and performing at their abilities as a result of their hard work and devotion, not the needle.