Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports

Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports In the world of sports there is much competition. There is so much that many sport players try to cheat their way through by using performance enhancing drugs. The players use steroids, human growth hormones and many more. All performance enhancing drugs should be banned from sports. The history of performance enhancing drugs goes back to the 1800s. There were two reported cases before the 1900s. The first known use was by a 24 year old cyclist named Arthur Linton in 1886. He died in a race from Bordeaux to Paris. The cause of death was said to be Typhoid Fever but he was believed to have taken trimethly which is a stimulant. The second known case happened in 1889. A French physician, Charles Edouard Brown-Sequard, extracted testicular fluid from dogs and guinea pigs and injected himself. At a scientific meeting in Paris he announced his findings saying that it made him feel younger and have more energy. In 1935 German scientists, led by Adolf Butenandt, developed the anabolic steroid. Between 1940 and 1945 the Nazis began testing the steroids on humans. They used prisoners, Gestapos, and Adolf Hitler himself. They found that it causes aggression and with enough use it causes people to go crazy. In 1954, the United States was given Performance- Enhancing drugs. When the Russians began to become good at powerlifting, a Soviet team doctor revealed his teams use of testosterone injections to an American weightlifting doctor named John Ziegler. Ziegler then began to work on creating a refined synthesis that would produce a compound with muscle-building benefits of testosterone but without bad side effects such as a prostate enlargement. The drug he created, called Methandrostenolone, was released by Ciba Pharmaceuticals under the name Dianabol. In 1973, the German womens swim team won 10 out of 14 gold medals in the inaugural swimming world championships in Belgrade. As a result, the Olympic committee in 1975 put anabolic steroids on a list of banned substances from the Olympics. Also, on the list, at that time, were any kinds of stimulants. In 1983, the governing body of Pan Am stripped 3 gold medals from American weightlifter Jeff Michels and they took gold medals from 3 other Latin Americans for testing positive of anabolic steroids. Thirteen other members of the American track and field team withdrew from the Olympics. Overall 23 medals were taken, 11 of them being gold. In 1988, sprinter Ben Johnson smashed the one hundred meter time by .14 seconds with a time of 9.79 seconds. He was then tested for anabolic steroids. He tested positive and his world record was deleted from the record books. In 1990 the government stepped in and Congress passed the Anabolic Steroid Control Act which classifies steroids as a Schedule III controlled substance. This means that the trafficking of Anabolic Steroids is no longer a misdemeanor but a felony. In 2000, Urinalysis tests are improved to detect EPO (erythropoietin). At this time though, blood doping was still undetectable. There are many dangerous risks around blood doping which consist of blood clots, strokes, and thrombosis. After retiring from baseball in 2002, Kem Caminiti admitted that he used steroids in his 1996 National League Most Valuable Player award winning season. He is quoted saying â€Å"I have made a ton of mistakes. I dont think using steroids is one of them.† In 2004 he died of a heart attack. He was only 41 years old.(Sports Illustrated) The most recent major case of steroid usage is with Barry Bonds. He was an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants and was first accused of using steroids in 2003 but denied ever using any. The government accused him when they went to his trainers house and took papers saying that Bonds had been using an undetectable steroid. He was found guilty on obstruction of justice on April 13, 2011 Performance enhancing drugs should not be used in any sports. They can be harmful to the human body, gives players an unfair advantage, and it does not show true skill. Many athletes, because of their drive to win, take too high a dose of Performance-Enhancing Drugs causing a high health risk. Both men and women can get bad side effects from them such as an increased risk of tendonitis, liver abnormalities and tumors, hypertension, heart and circulatory problems, prostate gland enlargement, aggressive behaviors, psychiatric disorders, and inhibited growth and development. Many of these are life threatening. Taking these drugs could be considered cheating as well. While there may be many players in sports taking Performance-Enhancing Drugs, there are still many who do not. For the ones who do not use them they put in hours and hours of hard work to get stronger for the sport they play. Athletes that do take them get the same effect in a much shorter time frame and many of the drugs they take gives them more energy to work out harder and longer. They also do not show the true skills a player may possess. For example, if a baseball hitter is a weak hitter but then takes steroids and works out while he is on them and gets really big and strong and starts crushing the baseball, he is showing the skills that the drugs helped him create. A Tuft University study showed that steroids can increase home run production by 50 percent showing that steroids are the reason why this weak hitter started crushing the baseball. Steroids help people get stronger a lot faster than if they did not take them. There are also some good things that come of Performance-Enhancing Drug use in sports. More world records are set, if it was legal then less time and would be used to enforce the drug policy, and the focus turns away from the drugs and back onto the sport that is being played. All of these reasons can all make the sport be more entertaining. Since these Performance-Enhancing drugs make athletes stronger, more records would be set. A study by a Tuft University physicist found that, on average, taking steroids increases the kinetic energy in a baseball players swing by about 10 percent, raises his bat speed by about 5 percent, and boosts the velocity of the hit ball by about 4 percent. These small increases all cause baseballs to travel farther and give players a 50 percent increase in homerun production which makes home run titles much easier to obtain. (Washington Post, Vedantam) Performance-Enhancing drugs dont only help baseball players break records, they help all sports. A sprinter by the name of Ben Johnson crushed the previous 100 meter dash record by .14 seconds with a time of 9.79 seconds. After the record breaking feat, he was tested for steroids and the results came back positive causing his record to not count. He would have had sole possession of the record if not for steroid bans. A weightlifter by the name Jeff Michels won 3 gold medals in the 1983 Olympics because of his use of steroids. His medals were stripped because he tested positive for steroids but that helps to show that steroids do help athletes become stronger and provide for tougher competition. This tougher competition would make people work harder to strive for their goals that they want to achieve. Money can also be saved if athletes could use Performance-Enhancing drugs. Instead of spending money on doctors to test players and investigators to investigate the players found using the drugs, they could just let it all go and save millions of dollars. With the money they save they could buy new equipment for each team. It would also give the leagues more time to decide on ways to make money. The focus of league officials would come back to the sport being played. Instead of them worrying about who has been taking Performance-Enhancing drugs and how long they need to suspend that person for, they could worry about who hit a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 9th or who just won the gold in the Olympics all without worrying about what they did to get so good. Performance enhancing drugs should not be allowed in any sport ever and the government should stay out of the entire struggle with these drugs in sports. The problems with Performance-Enhancing drugs has increased over the years but if the government stepped in and tried to deal with it, it would just give them another responsibility that they may not be able to handle. They may also be able to take steps that are too drastic such as throwing people in jail. Performance enhancing drugs are very harmful to the human body and should never be used in sports. They cause many life threatening sicknesses such as heart attacks and heart disease. They also provide unfair advantages and do not show an athletes true skill. There are good sides to it as well such as the added strength it gives athletes causes better records, more home runs, faster people, if they were legal then less time would be used to enforce the drug policy, and they would turn the focus away from drugs and back to the sport being played. Even with the good that can come out of Performance Enhancing drugs they are not worth the fatal risks and being known as a cheater for the rest of an athletes career. Keep all Performance Enhancing drugs out of sports forever. Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sports Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sports Performance enhancing drugs have been used in sports for years. Professional athletes like Barry bonds, Mark McGuire, and Lance Armstrong have been using PEDs for years. Sjà ¶qvist, Garle, Rane, states, Notable examples include Ben Johnsons gold medal for the 100 m at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, and hundreds of other winning elite athletes who have been caught in doping tests (Sjà ¶qvist, Garle, Rane, 2008). Some athletes who take PEDs try not to get caught. There are some athletes who are unaware that they have used performance enhancing drugs. Performance enhancing drugs has caused a serious debate over whether or not to ban PEDs. Performance enhancing drugs damages the integrity of sports and is harmful to the health of the athletes. There are others who believe performance enhancing drugs provides an extra performance increase. Performance enhancing drugs are substance that is used by athletes or people to improve their performance. Some athletes believe it is necessary to us e performance enhancing drugs in order to excel in their performance in sports. . Young athletes are at risk of using performance enhancing drugs because of peer pressure. Also they are at risk because the need to win and to perform better. A debate about the NCAA drug test program is about how the program test athletes for drug use. One reason for the controversy is the program check for certain drugs when they should check for all drug types. It is a suitable moral problem because it is a controversial issue where people can disagree about legalizing or banning performance enhancing drugs in sports. Many people believe that athletes who use performance enhancing drugs are morally wrong, and it is cheating and harmful to the athlete health. One of the major justifications for banning performance enhancing drugs is the health risks to athletes. The second reason is performance enhancing drugs cause damage to the integrity to sports. The third reason is the performance enhancing drug s encourages cheating and dishonest behavior in athletes. Identify the Problem Performance enhancing drug destroy the integrity of sports and it harm the health of the athlete. Clarify Concepts The terms I am planning to define in my paper are performance enhancing drugs, doping, and fairness. Performance enhancing drug is defined as a substance that is used to provide athletes with advantage in athletic performance. An idea that needs clarification is doping can be define as substance that athletes takes in any unfamiliar form to the body used gain an advantage in athletic performance. Another idea needs clarification is that of fairness itself, especially the idea when an athlete is cheating. The accusation is that when athletes takes performance enhancing drugs it is a form of cheating, that is unfair to the athletes when do not use PEDs. Some of the performances enhancing drug use by athletes are stimulants and pain suppressions. Anabolic agents are used by athletes for muscle building. Anabolic agents are also used as training aids by athletes. Some athletes take anabolic agents to recovery from train loads. Athletes some time take several different types performance e nhancing drugs. Diuretics used to control weight and Peptides are taken by athletes for many different reason. Peptides are also used because it is difficult to detect. Athletes take diuretics when they want to lose weight quickly. Athletes have been aware of the benefits that come from blood doping. Some athletes use blood doping used to increase oxygen in tissue. The reason athletes like using blood doping because it is difficult to detect. There are also some side effects from using blood doping like renal failure. Athletes use B Blockers use to control anxiety. Amateur athletes such as football, basketball and baseball players are a lower level athlete than professional. Amateur athletes play in sports in college. Amateur athletes do not earn a paid salary. Professional athletes are higher level and they get paid a salary. Professional athletes can play for sports such as the NBA, NFL and MLB. Wiesing states, Sport is an artificial setting, created by human beings, in which the competitor is required to perform, at least according to current, widely prevalent belief, with a degree of naturalness (Wiesing, 2011). The different kinds of drugs being abuse by athletes are stimulants, pain suppressions, anabolic agents, diuretics, Peptide, blood doping and B Blockers. Identify Possible Solutions to the Problem Allowing performance enhancing drugs in sports is an ethically sound solution when having to deal with the fairness. One possible solution is to allow athletes to take performance enhancing drugs under medical supervision. Another possible solution is to administer drug testing among athletes. It performance enhancing drugs was to become legalized then those who chooses not to used them will not be able to compete. Banning performance enhancing drugs is the ethically sound solution when having to deal with the integrity of the sport, and cheating and it harms the health of the athlete. A final possible solution allows athletes to take performance enhancing drugs at their own risk. Gather Information An athlete who uses performance enhancing drugs is judged differently than student who uses substances. Athletes who use performance enhancing drugs will be judge as cheaters. They also find that students who use performance enhancing drugs are judge differently than athletes. Some athletes believe it is necessary to use performance enhancing drugs in order to excel in their performance in sports. Copeland, Peters, Dillon states, The strongest motives for misuse of AS are to improve athletic performance, to enhance muscle mass for purposes of bodybuilding, or to improve physical appearance (as cited in Dodge, Wiliams ect, 2012). The perception that athletes who uses performance enhancing drug is the unfairness. An athlete who takes performance enhance drugs is a form of cheating that is why it is unfair. The reason for the perception is athlete who takes performance enhancing drugs and wins is because of the drugs. Also the athletes success was achieved at the expense of another ath lete. The thesis is, the use of performance enhancing drugs in youth athletes. The article examines the use of PEDs by youth athletes. Young athletes are at risk of using performance enhancing drugs because of peer pressure. Also they are at risk because the need to win and to perform better. A third reason why young athletes are at risk of using performance enhancing drugs is because competing with pain. The thesis is the NCAA drug test of athletes uses performance enhancing drugs in sports. Athletes in all sports are given a drug test. The NCAA drug testing program has been debate since it started random drug testing athletes. Some of the athletes who were drug test do not use performance enhancing drugs. A second debate about the NCAA drug test program is about how the program test athletes for drug use. One reason for the controversy is the program check for certain drugs when they should check for all drug types. A third issue with the drug test program is the drug test untrustworthiness of the test results. The test results can come back positive even if the athletes are not using PEDs. For example if a female takes birth control it can cause the drug test come back positive. A positive drug test can cause problems for an athlete career. Critics of drug testing argue that it is unfair to pick certain athletes for inspection because it could tempt some to cheat. Athletes attitude toward athletes who uses PEDs feels it is unacceptable. Some athletes felt they did Performance enhancing drugs has been used in sports for years. During modern Olympic Games, the drugs athletes choose to use included strychnine, heroin, cocaine, and morphine. In the early 1950s performance enhancing drugs was used in sports before that it was used by soldiers in the war. Tour de France cyclist Tom Simpson died from amphetamine abused. Amphetamines became a popular stimulant among professional athletes. Amphetamines have side effects such an aggression and addiction. In 1960 the first doping accident was seen during the Olympics. In the early 1950s anabolic steroids was introduce in sports. During the tour de France a doping death took place. There has been evidence that suggest the growth hormones increase an athletes performance. It was not until the 1976 Olympics game was AAS was tested in athletes. Some performance enhancing drugs are harder to detect because it mimic the body natural chemicals. The use of PEDs by athletes has led to an increase of recreational drug use among athletes. Some athletes used PEDs to decreased fatigue during exercise, reduce inflammation and boost their mood. Noakes states, Increasing muscle size, these drugs increase strength, power, and sprinting speed; they also alter mood and speed the rate of recovery, permitting more intensive training and hence superior training adaptation (Noakes, 2004). Should performance enhance drugs in sports be legalized under medical supervision, the outcome and the risks will affect the athletes. Some of the most memorable moments achieved in sports were achieved by some professional athletes using performance enhancing drugs. Some argue performance enhance drugs should be legalized in sports. If performance enhance drugs was to become legalize in sports there needs to be rules and restrictions. The legalization performance enhancing drugs becomes under medical supervision means there will be a list of risks and side effects. Also there will be an introduction to the long term damage performance enhancing drugs causes to the athletes health. Even if performance enhance drugs was to become legal some PEDs will still remained banned. Some athletes lack understanding of the side effects of using PEDs especially when it comes to new PEDs. If performance enhance drugs were to become legalized under medical supervision who will decide how much can b e use or place limits on use. Some who support performance enhancing drug use under medical supervision believes if it was to become legal if would lead to an increase of drug testing on athletes. Wiesing states, Sport in general and the credibility of the doping control system in particular are suffering from the fact that not all doping activity can be verified because doping methods change (Wiesing, 2011). The impact of legalizing performance enhancing drugs in sports would lead to athletes taking more risks to their health using PEDs. Those who oppose the legalizing performance enhance drugs in sports believes the risk can be avoided by not allowing PEDs sports. If performance enhancing drugs was to become legal in sports it would change our view of sports. Also many believe that achievements in sports are accomplished through hard work, natural talent and not by using performance enhancing drugs. Sjà ¶qvist, Garle, Rane, states, Athletes commonly take mega doses of steroids-d oses 50-100 times the amount needed to replace physiological steroid concentrations (Sjà ¶qvist, Garle, Rane, 2008). Some athletes use blood doping used to increase oxygen in tissue. Examine Assumptions and Points of View There are some assumptions that are made about the moral acceptability of performance enhancing drugs in sports. What we believe is right determines our beliefs about what makes performance enhancing drugs acceptable or unacceptable in sports. Some people assume an answer to the problem is to fully accept performance enhancing drugs in sports. Performance enhancing drugs is considered illegal if it violates the spirits of sports. Those who support performance enhancing drugs in sports claim that performance enhancing drugs have been used for years. Those who favor the use of PEDs claim the reason many have fail to eliminate performance enhancing drugs in sports because of lack of evidence to support their claim. One argument in support of performance enhancing drugs claims that if they were made legal there would be no issue with cheating. In addition if performance enhancing drugs are made legal the playing field will be leveled. Those who favor claims performance enhancing drugs do not change the spirit of sports; instead they claim it helps the sport. Athletes who have use performance enhancing drugs have benefit from the advantage over other athletes. In addition they have also benefit from a salary increase as a result of taking steroids. There is the argument that the performance enhancing drugs that are safe should be allow and that those that are not should be banned. They also argue if safe performance enhancing drugs were allow then it will force companies to create safe PEDs for athletes to use. The opposing side claims performance enhancing drugs changes the fairness of the game. In addition, taking performance enhancing drugs it is considered cheating. There some who argues that when dealing with the unfair advantage some people have the ability to win. The athletes ability to win depend on how much oxygen is carried to the muscles. There is other who relies on performance enhancing drugs to compete. If performance enhancing drugs became legal in sports, it would take away the spirit of the sport. The opposing side claims performance enhancing drugs are dangerous as they put the health of the athlete at risk. It is unfair to the athletes who do not take PED because of the advantage that the cheater gains. It performance enhancing drugs were to become legalized, and then those who choose not to use them will not be able to compete. Moral Reasoning My solution to the problem is performance enhancing drugs should be banned because they damage the integrity of sports. The problem is to determine whether or not performance enhancing drugs is morally acceptable in sports. Because performance enhancing drugs involves athletes cheating or unfairness. This is the argument the opponents of performance enhancing drugs appeal to in their claim. Performance enhancing drugs harm the health of athletes and cause unfairness. Athletes can suffer long term side effects from using performance enhancing drugs. An athlete who takes performance enhancing drugs has an unfair advantage over athletes who do not take PEDs. Those who choose not to use performance enhancing drugs will be force out. Those who are in favor of performance enhancing drugs in sports often appeal to these arguments prevent unfairness and health. We must take into consideration the harm and the benefits of using performance enhancing drugs. Waller states. deontology ethics def ine as any ethical system that judges right and wrong acts in terms of principles or duties, rather than on the basis of the consequences of the acts; contrasted with consequentialism (Waller 2011, 343). Deontology would say using performance enhancing drugs is cheating and it is morally wrong. Athletes that value the integrity of sports would not use PEDs. Athletes have to consider duties or obligation they owe to the other athletes and others to treat others with respect. To cheat in sports by using PEDs or mislead someone by lying about the use of performance enhancing drugs is disrespectful and is wrong in the eyes of a deontologist. An athlete who takes performance enhancing drugs in sports is unethical. People should be treated as ends never as the means. Deontology places importance on the kinds of acts the athlete do and justice. Any athlete who uses PEDs is immoral and the uses PEDs by athletes should not be accepted. Conclusion and Consequences Sports have always been important to many people in society. The use of performance enhancing drugs in sports undermines the integrity of sports and creates an unfair advantage. An athlete who takes performance enhancing drug has an unfair advantage over other athletes who do not take PEDs. It is not fair to the athlete who chooses to obey the rules. PEDs are not only harmful to the health of the athletes but it is also a form of cheating. If my solution was to become law or policy it would bring fairness to sports and moral integrity as well. Also there will be the policy of the risk of performance enhancing drugs to the health of the athlete. The side effects can include renal failure, addiction, blood pressure increase and change in body temperature. One of the arguments is taking performance enhancing drugs are against the rules for athletes to use performance enhancing drugs. The second argument is the unfairness an athlete who uses PEDs has over an athlete who does not use drug s. The third argument is the harm performance enhancing drugs are to the athletes health. A final argument is the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports undermines the integrity of sports. The opposition objects to the harm of PEDs and unfairness. The risks that come from using PEDs should not be left up to the athlete. If an athlete is caught using performance enhancing drugs they could be suspended from the league.