Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Banned And Eliminated

Running head: PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS 1

Performance Enhancing Drugs Should be Banned and Eliminated

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PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS 2

Performance Enhancing Drugs Should be Banned and Eliminated

Over the years, there has been a huge amount of academic, policy and public debate on

the use of performance enhancing drugs in competitive sports. Ideally, sports are designed to

provide an opportunity for the participants to employ their natural capabilities to compete. Thus,

when some individuals use drugs to improve the body performance, it gives them an unfair

advantage over the other competitors. Largely, the attempts to completely eliminate the use of

drugs in sports have failed. Nevertheless, it is imperative to provide an analytical argument to the

effect that performance enhancing drugs should be banned and eliminated.

The World-Anti Doping Agency uses two metrics to classify a drug as illegal: One, if it

enhances the performance of an athlete, and, if it violates the spirit of sport ("What is

Prohibited", 2018). The agency contends that the spirit of sport constitutes a celebration of

human spirit, mind, and body characterized by myriad values such as ethics, fair play, honesty,

respect for rules and laws, and courage ("What is Prohibited", 2018). Consequently, biological

manipulation through the use of drugs violates the spirit of sport by handicapping the capacity of

individuals to improve their performance through reason and judgment. Ultimately, in a sport

that is characterized by the use of drugs to enhance performance, the winner is not the person

who has the best genetic combination and who have used reason and judgment to improve their

performance (Ntoumanis & Backhouse, 2015). Instead, the winner is the person who has

manipulated their body performance, thereby violating the spirit of sport and providing a reason

for doping substances to banned and eliminated.

Besides violating the spirit of sport, the use of performance-enhancing drugs has adverse

health implications for the athletes who are involved in the vice. The key objective of any sport

is to ensure health and fitness of the participants to compete (Christiansen & Møller, 2016).

PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS 3

Thus, actions that have adverse effects such as doping should be banned and eliminated. A

current trend to promote doping has been to develop undetectable drugs with no concern for the

safety of the athletes. Therefore, although there has been an increase in policy recommendations

to allow drugs that are safe for the athletes, it is prudent to assert that doping drugs should all be

banned and eliminated. Providing a selective provision on the use of drugs would create a

loophole for the use of drugs with negative health effects (Christiansen & Møller, 2016).

Over time, there has been an increase in the number of children participating or aspiring

to participate in sports. The society has a moral obligation to promote the safety of these children

and help them understand the need to safeguard the spirit of sport (Epstein, 2013). The use of

performance-enhancing drugs requires a person to be aware of the health, legal and moral

implications. Consequently, banning and eliminating doping would safeguard the interests of

children in sports by eliminating the need for them to make moral judgments when they are not

competent to do so (Epstein, 2013). Additionally, banning doping empowers sporting children

to employ their natural abilities as well as hard work to achieve success without the need to

biologically manipulate their body performances.

In a word, it is apparent that there enough reasons to the effect that performance-

enhancing drugs should be banned and eliminated. Sport is premised on several values that

culminate in creating a spirit of sport. To maintain this spirit that is underlined by the need for

athletes to employ their natural abilities without altering their biological functioning, it is

imperative to ban the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Further, doping has adverse health

implications that would increase the risks associated with sporting. Finally, it is critical to

safeguarding the interests of children involved in sports or aspiring to join sports. Banning

PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS 4

doping is a moral duty and empowers children to employ their natural abilities to achieve

success.

PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS 5

References

Christiansen, A., & Møller, R. (2016). Who is more skillful? Doping and its implication on the

validity, morality, and significance of the sporting test. Performance Enhancement &

Health, 4(3-4), 123-129. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.peh.2016.04.002

Epstein, T. (2013). Challenges Exist in Regulating Use of Drugs in Sports. SSRN Electronic

Journal, 12(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1956553

Ntoumanis, N., & Backhouse, S. (2015). A Philosophical Debate on the Morality of Doping is

Interesting but Beyond the Scope of Our Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine, 45(3), 445-

446. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0315-x

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