If Performance Enhancing Drugs Were Allowed in Sports

Health Risk

It is the athletes choice to make if they want to face negative side affects from the steroids.

What gives us the right to tell them what they can
and can't do to their bodies

"Performance enhancers, like steroids and other forms of doping, have a negative effect on long-term health."

Athletes become so strong, competition itself becomes dangerous

Serious Injuries Occur

Athletes Become Bigger Faster Stronger

Competition Level Increases

More Spectators become involved
which means more revenue.

Athletes always try to get the upper hand which can have negative affects. For example, if an athlete is taking 1 dose
but still at disadvantage, they may increase dosage which would eventually be dangerous.

The pressure of being great, leads
to unhealthy decision making

Cheat or Train?

There is so much technology that increases
performance, how is this different that using
drugs

If your have the resources
mise will use them

Just prepare within your human capabilities

Take advantage of your diet and self
preparation to separate you from your
competition, because you can always outwork
someone

Viewing Athletes as Role Models

An athletes job is to perform at the
highest level possible.

Spectators pay to watch athletes perform their talents,
not to learn how to live their lives.

The younger generation of athletes are always trying
be like the pros.

If teenagers see the pros doing it, they will
follow in their footsteps, which at a young age
most steroids are very dangerous

Resources:

https://sportsanddrugs.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002352

Robert Simon, PhD
Professor of Philosophy at Hamilton College
Fair Play: The Ethics of Sport
2003

Gary Becker, PhD
Professor in the Departments of Economics, Sociology, and the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago
"Doping in Sports,"
Becker-Posner blog
Aug. 27, 2006


Greg Schwab
Testimony for the hearing "Steroid Use in Professional Baseball and Anti-Doping Issues in Amateur Sports" before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, Foreign Commerce, and Tourism
June 18, 2002

Resources:

Richard Pound, BCL
Former President of the World Anti-Doping Agency
Intelligence Squared US debate titled "We Should Accept Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Competitive Sports," moderated by Bob Costas
Jan. 15, 2008

Sam Shuster, PhD
Emeritus Professor of Dermatology at Newcastle University
"There's No Proof That Sports Drugs Enhance Performance,"
The Guardian
Aug. 4, 2006

Timothy Noakes, MD, DSc
Discovery Health Professor of Exercise and Sports Science at the University of Cape Town "Tainted Glory,"
New England Journal of Medicine Aug. 26, 2004