...“An alarming number of sports—baseball, football, track and field, and especially cycling—have been shaken by doping scandals in recent years,” reports Scientific American (Schermer, 2008). The performance enhancing drugs are becoming needed good for some athletes in order to succeed. There is a tremendous clash of ideas, what path we should take in according to these types of drugs. The million-dollar question is to legalize them or not. In “Good sport, bad sport” published in The Age, Julian Savalescu and Bennett Foddy (2004) argue that the use of performance enhancing drugs should be legalized in sports because it is not “against the spirit of sport.” First of all, the authors introduce the issue of using drugs in sports as something that has been around for a long period of time, even in the Ancient Olympics. Savalescu and Foddy then explain that the elimination of drug use in sports is failing. They say the athletes’ desire to win is a lot of times stronger than staying clean. In addition, Savalescu and Foddy argue that performance enhancing drugs do not doubt the spirit of sport. In their view, making human biology more effective symbolizes the human spirit. They say that sports are about striving to be better, and drugs allow athletes to do that. Savalescu and Foddy also claim that sports today are aimed against people without genetic predispositions to be the best, and so taking drugs would equalize people with different genetic predispositions. In their opinion, the...
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...Drug use has reached an all-time high in the sports arena. The need to succeed, be among the elite, financial gain, and the pressure to win are some of the many reasons that drugs are found in sports today. Drugs in sports range from therapeutic drugs, performance enhancement drugs, and recreational drugs. Drugs in sports are found on various levels of competition such as: high school, college, and professional sports. High school athletes' are using enhancement drugs so that they may receive a college scholarship, collegiate athletes' are using drugs so that they make it to the professional level, and professional athletes' are using drugs to make sure that they stay among the elite. Drug use in athletics have led to suspensions of players, athletes being banned from that particular sport, and ultimately death. There are many reasons for using drugs in sports, with performance enhancement being one of the top reasons, but no one will ever understand why athletes risk their career and lives. A concern for the public is the fact that athletes assume these risks just to be among the top competitors of sports. Drugs are a danger to the health of athletes. Drug use to enhance performance is unethical, and using drugs is illegal in today's society. Drugs in sports is unethical because the focus of winning and succeeding overshadows the real reasons for playing sports such as the love for a sport, natural talent and ability, and hard work to be among the elite. Athletes are thinking...
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...National Institute on Drug Abuse Society today is a highly antagonistic environment where people compete for jobs, college admissions, fame and status. In a high-pressured society, people are willing to do whatever it takes to be number one, or the best at what they do. The smallest, slightest advantage could make all the difference in the world, especially in an olympic race where .5 milliseconds could be the difference between winning and losing. The use of performing enhancing drugs has given athletes an advantage, over those who do not use them. Not only have athletes engaged in the use of anabolic steroids, but other drugs such as stimulants, beta-blockers, diuretics, and human growth hormone. Society has placed a pressure on athletes...
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...Cunningham, Thomas Glenn, and Michael Vasquez 11/17/13 Jeanette Laredo English 1320.017 Risk-Enhancing Drugs – Is Winning the Only Thing? How far would you go to win? The culture of sports revolves around the goal of winning, this mindset forces athlete to take risk; however, does this ideology cause athletes to make bad decisions. One of the biggest issues in sports today is the use of performance-enhancing drugs as a way of “cheating” in order to get an edge on opponents. From the high school level all the way up to the professional level, men and women have been caught using these drugs, which are banned. It is easy to see the positive effects of using these performance-enhancing drugs with athletes becoming faster, bigger, and stronger; however, these athletes and there spectators don’t realize why these performance enhancing drugs are actually illegal, especially college students who are the major risk takers. Attached to the natural benefits of these drugs that make athletes feel closer to achieving their dream of winning are health risk, reputation risk, and loads of other negative effects of using PEDs. Enrolled in the University of North Texas, the authors of this paper have created a blog in order to appeal to the athletes here at UNT in order to help educate them on the exact reasons why these performance-enhancing drugs are illegal and to help persuade them against using them. In addition to reading and learning about the negative effects of PEDs, we have also included...
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...Involvement with drugs and athletes is a big step towards future activities. It can cause hazardous predicaments by taking illegal drugs, not following the laws that’s required for an athlete to compete. The drugs that are used by athletes are to be used for considerable reasoning. Instead, it gets used for the wrong reasons. Cheating your way towards a great success, will soon catch up and turn out into a tragedy due to eagerness. Athletes must find a way to abstain from this type of virus. Any and everyone can do this, but it takes time to do so with the certain capabilities that will help. It might appear that drugs are being abused by athletes, but as to them, it is taken as a concise product. By athletes enhancing drugs, risks are being taken. In results, athletes rely on drugs by keep them in the best shape of their lives as well as performing at their best level Testing Drugs on Athletes "Drugs have changed the way athletes perform. It has spread throughout the world in many different ways and is an effect towards the young, as well as the elderly" (Adler, 2009, p.44). Athletes are first tested by giving a urine sample. Athletes must first go through this progress in order for them to proceed. A drug test is an ANALYSIS of specifics through hair, blood, urine, sweat, or saliva. It’s to determine whether or not a person is on drugs. Drug testing is assembled all throughout the world. Discovering drugs on athletes can be critical at times. Any athlete can...
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...Sports and Performance Enhancing Drugs John Alvarez Student #0588681 Essay 2 April 1, 2015 PHI – 010 Professor Andrea Yusim Words: 1,519 In a country that is obsessed with winning and competition, athletes, teams and even fans have tried to gain an advantage against their competition. As athletes become bigger, stronger and faster, the margin and window of opportunity to become the best athlete in their respective sports is surely becoming smaller and smaller. Many people will argue that performance enhancing drugs will help in promoting player health and recovery and that sports in general will benefit overall. In this paper, I will argue that the argument in favor of performance enhancement drug use is not valid because performance enhancing drugs are unethical, create unfair competitive advantages and do not promote the very essence of the value of sports which is hard work and team work. Team and individual sports in the United States is a very important part of culture. Athletes are revered for their prowess and mastery of their respective sports and are at times treated as demi-gods. Individual teams and entire leagues depend on these very athletes to compete at the highest level and with the utmost sense of integrity in order to show that their leagues are played ethically. So not only are athletes expected to be at their very best, they are also expected to do so without compromising the integrity of the sport such as cheating by using PEDs. In the article...
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...been questioning Major League Baseball (MLB) about its players using performance enhancing drugs such as steroids. This issue has become controversial because players are cheating to enhance their physical abilities of playing the sport. Many people believe it is immoral and isn’t fair to those who work hard every day through countless hours of practice, sweat, and extreme physical conditioning to get to where they are at; and others are cheating by taking steroids. A great example of performance enhancing drug abuse is the Barry Bonds era. We all believed that he was a man of unique strength and miraculous physical capabilities with his numerous homeruns, but then found out he was cheating by using steroids and made his accomplishments a disgrace to the sport and an embarrassment to its MLB fans. The MLB needs to enforce sterner random drug testing on its players, harsher fines, and repeated offenders should be banned from the sport so it may become a more moral sport. Steroids and other similar muscle building drugs are drugs that can actually increase your abilities instead of hindering them. Most organized sports associations setup a strict drug testing policy which allows very little room for mistakes. Despite the strict trends set by other associations, Major League Baseball still has an extremely lax drug testing policy and has been under heavy media scrutiny. The MLB should strengthen their drug abuse policy to eliminate any unfair advantages a player may receive...
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...Athletes Turning to Performance Enhancing Drugs? “One of the most exciting sports stories in recent years was the attempt to break Roger Maris’ single-season home run record [of sixty-one] in baseball. On September 8, 1998, Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals made history by hitting his sixty-second home run,” writes William Dudley. He also states, “However, many people believe that McGwire’s achievement was tarnished by a revelation some weeks earlier that he had been using androstenedione, a compound that temporarily boosts levels of the male sex hormone testosterone” (Dudley, 7). This drew attention to the serious problem of performance enhancing drug use in professional and amateur sports. The issue of performance enhancing...
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...Definitions A drug is considered to be any chemical substance which when taken into the body, alters the body's function either physically and/or psychologically. Drugs may be legal (alcohol, caffeine and tobacco) or illegal (ecstasy, cocaine and heroin) (Hemphill, 2009). One such class of drug is known as performance-enchancing drugs. Hemphill defines a performance enhancer as any drug or treatment that improves an athletes level of achievement through physical and/or mental means (2009, p.315). Though others see a performance-enhancer as more then just a drug or treatment, but as ways of training/ recovery technologies and innovations which improve performance (Savulescu et. al, 2004). Innovations is quite a broad term, but in terms of competitive sports it is referred to as the development of new or altered training and recovery techniques which are introduced into competitive sports to gain any athletic advantage possible, this being mainly of new technological advances (Loland, 2009). Affirmative Performance-enhacning drugs are ethically different from innovations and technologies in sport as performance enhancing drugs can potentially damage the health of those taking them, while anyone using them is gaining an unfair advantage and how the morals and the spirit of sport is affected by the use perfromance-enhancing drugs as compared to innovations in sports. The health of athletes in sport has always been a number one priority by sporting governments, while drugs do improve...
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...Is it acceptable to use performance-enhancing drugs? – RE Essay Performance-enhancing drugs are becoming widely known and used in the world of sport, athletics especially. These drugs are generally used by professional athletes for means of achieving medal positions and/or personal bests in their various races and competitions. There is, however, controversy when it comes to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. There are some who believe that performance-enhancing drugs should be available and allowed to be used in competitions. Sport regulations ban performance-drug use and ensure that athletes are tested to determine that they are not using them. Many religious believers value sport only if it does not involve cheating. All religions...
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...Running Header: At What Cause Will Athlete Stop Using Performance Enhancer At What Cause Will Athlete Stop Using Performance Enhancer Kha’Lashia Ketchum Axia College of University of Phoenix COM/120 Sandy Lacer Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports A performance-enhancing drug in sports is a big thing these days. Athletes are using them to increase their ability to win. Ethically speaking at what cost do we say enough. Think about their lives, by continuing to take these form of enhancement what effect will they have in the long run. Maybe if we understand the types of drugs, the side effects, health risk, and consequence of taking drugs. Athletes would stop using these forms of performance-enhancer. The type of Drugs Athletes Take Athletes use many different types of performance-enhancer in professional sports today from pills to steroids; they will even go as far as self-injecting their own blood as a dope. Blood Doping is where the athletes take there own blood and injected in their bodies to produce more oxygen in their blood in order to increase their chances of win. The positive thing about doing this is that it makes it easy for the athletes to breathe a longer time, which give them a better chance for winning. “Athletes have always been aware of the possible benefit of improving oxygen carrying capacity in endurance sport, hence many train at altitude. More recently athletes have used blood doping – in which blood is taken off...
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...performance enhancing drugs be accepted in sports? Sports are a big part of many people’s lives. Whether they are playing basketball, football, baseball, or other sports, people want to perform the best they can to help their team win. Many athletes exercise and lift weight to achieve their goals, while others rely on special diet plans to be stronger and healthier. But, one of the most controversial ways of increasing athletic ability is by taking performance enhancing drugs. Performance enhancing drugs can become a big part of athletes’ lives and have the potential of becoming very addictive, because players may see a major change in their performance. Athletes like Lance Armstrong, Wes Welker, and Alex Rodriguez have all used some form of performance enhancing drug. While it may seem like a good route for some major athletes, they end up losing some respect and their right to play and compete. So a major issue that sports authorities are facing now is whether...
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...regard to the ethics that accompany the intake of drugs. There are many reasons why competitors should, in fact, follow the rules set in place and stop using steroids completely. Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) should completely stop being used in competitions or leagues. First of all, anabolic steroids are known to be bad for your health. PEDs have unpleasant, undesirable side effects. The United States Anti-Doping Agency lists the symptoms of using PEDs, which include ”liver damage, stunted growth, increased aggressiveness, leukemia, anemia,...
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...athletes using performance enhancement drugs and why it should be illegal are the health risks. What is a performance enhancing substance? “A substance or method is considered to be performance-enhancing when it has the potential to enhance or enhances sport performance” “It also represents an actual or potential health risk to an athlete”(Performance-Enhancing Drugs and Their Side-Effects.) There are physical and mental effects of taking the drugs. “The physical effects could be acne, male pattern baldness, liver damage and stunted growth if you’re still an adolescent”( Effects of Performance-Enhancing Drugs | USADA). “More serious effects include heart and liver damage, and an increased risk...
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...English 8 July 2014 The Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs Ryan Braun, a former Major League Baseball player was suspended for the rest of the baseball season for the use of performance enhancing drugs. Ryan Braun share with CNN News that “I am not perfect. I realize now that I have made some mistakes. And willing to accept the consequence of those actions.” The MLB’s commissioner points out that Braun had various unspecified breaches of the baseball’s drug program and violations labor of contract. For that reason, Ryan Braun will miss the total of 65 games without pay, the suspension will cause him to lose three million dollars out of his eight million salary. As an MLB spokesman shares with CNN that Braun is welcome to return after his suspension, as long as he’s making positive decisions that benefit Major League Baseball, whether it’s on field or off the field. Many professional athletes use PEDs to bulk up, build more muscles, and endurance; however, using PEDs nonstop can result in side effects like strokes, heart attacks, and death when used incorrectly. For the last couple of years, professional athletes from different sports have been caught for the use of PEDs or any other type of steroids, the players, usually a well-known person like Lance Armstrong and Alex Rodriguez. Although, the aid of performance enhancing drugs may provide entertainment to sports they also betray the values of sportsmanship; as well as give an unfair advantage over those who choose not to...
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