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drugs and sports

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Posted by: Scarface30

I know you guys have heard all about it, but I'm writing a mini-essay on this topic right now for the writing course I am in, which I think it's great because I have a strong opinion on this topic...I think it's horrible. that's just what I think about it simply put. here's the article, thought it might make a good discussion, I don't know if it's in the right section or not...

"A sporting chance
Bans on drug enhancement in sport may go the way
of earlier prohibitions on women and remuneration.
Whether you have been following the just-finished Tour de
France or waiting for Barry Bonds to break the all-time
record for major-league home runs in baseball, the topic
of drugs in sport has been hard to avoid of late.
To cheat in a sporting event is a loathsome thing. For as long as
the rules of the Tour de France or any sporting event ban the use of
performance-enhancing drugs, those who break the rules must be
punished whenever possible. But this does not preclude the idea that
it may, in time, be necessary to readdress the rules themselves.
As more is learned about how our bodies work, more options
become available for altering those workings. To date, most of this
alteration has sought to restore function to some sort of baseline. But
it is also possible to enhance various functions into the supernormal
realm, and the options for this are set to grow ever greater.
The fact that such endeavours will carry risks should not be trivialized.
But adults should be allowed to take risks, and experience
suggests that they will do so when the benefits on offer are enticing
enough. By the end of this century the unenhanced body or mind
may well be vanishingly rare.
As this change takes place, we will have to re-examine what we
expect of athletes. If spectators are seeking to reset their body mass
index through pharmacology, or taking pills that enhance their memory,
is it really reasonable that athletes should make do with bodies
that have not seen such benefits? The more the public comes to live
with the mixed and risk-related benefits of enhancement, the more
it will appreciate that allowing such changes need not rob sport of
its drama, nor athletes of their need for skill, training, character and
dedication.
To change the rules on pharmacological enhancement would not
be without precedent. It was once thought that a woman could not
epitomize the athletic ideal as a man could, and so should be stopped
from trying. Similarly, it was thought proper to keep all payments
from some athletes, thus privileging the
already wealthy. These prejudices have
been left behind, and the rules have
changed. As pharmacological enhancement
becomes everyday, views of bodily
enhancement may evolve sufficiently for
sporting rules to change on that, too.
This transition will not be painless. Some people will undoubtedly
harm themselves through the use of enhancements, and there
would need to be special protection for children. That said, athletes
harm themselves in other forms of training, too. They may harm
themselves less with drugs when doctors can be openly involved and
masking agents dispensed with.
There is also the problem of who goes first. The first sport to change
its rules to allow players to use performance-enhancing drugs will
be attacked as a freak show or worse. The same may be true of the
second. This may well have the effect — may already be having the
effect — of delaying the inevitable.
Perhaps the Tour de France could show the way ahead here. In terms
of public respect, endurance cycling has the least to lose and perhaps
the most to gain. To be sure, a change in the rules would lead to
the claim that ‘the cheats have won’. But as no one can convincingly
claim that cheats are not winning now, or have not been winning in the
past, that claim is not quite the showstopper it might seem to be.
A leadership ready to ride out the outrage might be better for the
sport in the long run. If some viewers and advertisers were lost along
the way, the Tour could console itself with the thought that it got by
with far less commercial interest in days gone by — and that it is more
likely to re-establish itself through excellence and honesty than in the
penumbra of doubt and cynicism that surrounds it now."

it's an article in Nature magazine.


Posted by: highpockets

Interesting essay! Let me play the devil's advocate just to get you thinking some more.

First of all, "To cheat in a sporting event is a loathsome thing." I agree 100%!

Now the Devil's side of things: Are the athlete's really to blame, or should we blame GREED? Not just the athlete's greed to make more money and the quest for fame, but the greed of professional sport team owners and their corporate cronies? Is the pressure placed on professional athletes to out perform everyone else leading to substance abuse?

To the professional athlete either on a team or an individual, success is measured by WINS (obviously). Wins = Success = Money.

I'm not sure I agree with allowing athlete's to use banned substances, I haven't really given it much thought, however, on a parallel thought and not to change the subject, I am in favor of the NCAA allowing universities to pay their respective athletes. Like banned performance enhancing drugs, payment to college athletes is in fact occuring over and above the typical full-ride, books, housing, etc.. Universities make a ton of money off of the college athlete and as long as a fair, unexorbent, stipend could be paid to all athletes, all sports, all genders, I see no problem with it; so now you really have me thinking about performance enhancing drugs.

I guess my biggest fear is this (you write): "The first sport to change its rules to allow players to use performance-enhancing drugs will be attacked as a freak show or worse." Makes me think, Professional Wrestling! I know it's not really a sport, it's entertainment, but isn't professional sports entertainment?

Anyway you have done a very nice job! One objective of a journalist is to get the reader thinking on his/her own to formulate an educated opinion and you have done this well!


Posted by: Scarface30

Quote:
Originally Posted by highpockets View Post
Interesting essay! Let me play the devil's advocate just to get you thinking some more.

First of all, "To cheat in a sporting event is a loathsome thing." I agree 100%!

Now the Devil's side of things: Are the athlete's really to blame, or should we blame GREED? Not just the athlete's greed to make more money and the quest for fame, but the greed of professional sport team owners and their corporate cronies? Is the pressure placed on professional athletes to out perform everyone else leading to substance abuse?

To the professional athlete either on a team or an individual, success is measured by WINS (obviously). Wins = Success = Money.

I'm not sure I agree with allowing athlete's to use banned substances, I haven't really given it much thought, however, on a parallel thought and not to change the subject, I am in favor of the NCAA allowing universities to pay their respective athletes. Like banned performance enhancing drugs, payment to college athletes is in fact occuring over and above the typical full-ride, books, housing, etc.. Universities make a ton of money off of the college athlete and as long as a fair, unexorbent, stipend could be paid to all athletes, all sports, all genders, I see no problem with it; so now you really have me thinking about performance enhancing drugs.

I guess my biggest fear is this (you write): "The first sport to change its rules to allow players to use performance-enhancing drugs will be attacked as a freak show or worse." Makes me think, Professional Wrestling! I know it's not really a sport, it's entertainment, but isn't professional sports entertainment?

Anyway you have done a very nice job! One objective of a journalist is to get the reader thinking on his/her own to formulate an educated opinion and you have done this well!
lol, sorry if I misinformed anyone...I didn't write that article, I have to write an essay ABOUT that article haha.


Posted by: highpockets

I wondered about that after I posted my response and re-read your post again. Oh well! Maybe some of the comments made will help you formulate your essay.







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