Should Anabolic Steroids Be Banned?

The Intelligence Square U.S. held a debate about whether or not the government’s rules on performance enhancing drugs should be ban in professional sports. For the debate they had Radley Balko, Investigative Journalist, Norman Fost, Professor of Pediatrics and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, and Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Professor of Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford argue for the motion. They argue the fact that the medicines we take on a daily basis from the pharmacy are also performance enhancers. This goes back all the way to the Romans who once used herbs to improve themselves for battle, making them believe that the only exception that separates this from steroids is that it is illegal. On the other hand, you have

Athletes are always searching for ways to enhance their performance. Recently, beginning in the 1950s, that search has included the use of illegal substances like steroids and growth hormones. Illegal substances have been used widely by athletes in hop es of achieving the desired Olympic gold medal or multi-million dollar contract. Some nations, for example the late East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, have mandated the use of steroids by their athletes. The downside of using those illegal substances is that because they are illegal, getting caught using them can lead to losing that coveted gold medal, a lifetime ban from sports, and a total loss of honor and dignity. This is why the search is now on to find some legal

“Commentators claim that performance-enhancing drugs are not right or wrong, simply another strategy to improve performance” (Introduction to Performance-Enhancing Drugs). There are two main problems wrong with the use of drugs being legal. Health of athletes would drop devastatingly, and the true competition would become who gets lucky. “Some mourn the loss of yesterday's baseball heroes, while others argue that sport figures who use performance-enhancing drugs expose flaws in American culture” (Introduction to Performance-Enhancing

The desire to compete — and win — is as old as history itself. From the beginnings of sport, athletes have sought out foods and potions to turn their bodies into winning machines. As early as 776 BCE, the very first Olympic games, there are records of attempts to increase testosterone levels (“Steroid Abuse in Sports”). Ancient Greek wrestlers ate vast amounts of meat to gain muscle mass, and Norse “Berserker” warriors took hallucinogenic mushrooms before battle. The first competitive athletes to be charged for doping, however, were swimmers in 1860s Amsterdam. Doping of all kinds, from caffeine to cocaine to anabolics quickly spread to other sports (“Anabolic Steroids, a Brief History”).

Knowing wrong from right seems to be a harder and harder concept for people to grasp. As the American culture wanders farther and farther from a Christian Worldview, so it seems America loses its grip on morals and ethics. In this paper, there will be an exploration of ethics in regards to performance enhancing drug use in athletes. Performance enhancing drugs should continue to be banned due to health risk factors, the element of cheating and abuse of the athlete 's body.

“…medical researchers believe that between 1 and 3 million youths and adults have taken anabolic steroids in one form or another specifically to enhance their looks or athletic performances,” stated Nuwer (Nuwer, 61). As astounding as these figures are, the number of performance drug users is steadily increasing. With this progressively increasing numbers, it is projected that millions more will use steroids in the immediate future (Newer, 61). Athletes have always sought an advantage in competition even if ignoring the law and their health if necessary. Using drugs of any sort to facilitate an athlete’s athletic ability should be illegal. The use of performance enhancing drugs is not only detrimental to the user but it also creates an

Performance enhancing drugs, or steroids, are defined as substances used to improve physical performance. There are many types of steroidal performance enhancers. The first of these performance enhancing drugs are anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids are also known as androgen steroids, and they are used to increase the muscle mass and strength of a person. A natural anabolic steroid is testosterone, which your body naturally produces. Some athletes take straight testosterone which is another way to boost your athletic performance. This has the same effect as anabolic steroids, but it is natural and can be found within the body. Anabolic steroids are so effective and appealing to athletes, because they allow athletes to recover faster from a

“... ever since the rise of anabolic steroids, the modern international sports arena has become something of an arms race, as athletes vie to get a competitive edge before regulators can catch them in the act (Jussim, 2016).” Everyday, competitors are pumping drugs into their blood, in hope of becoming the best athlete who ever lived. They [athletes] can never get enough of this gym candy, and eventually the substance will win, and become the best killer that ever lived.

Do you feel that PED’s should be allowed in sport? The problem is that players use PED’s or Performance Enhancing Drugs to get an advantage over their opponents. Despite the advances in technology for discovering PED’s, there is still a great number of people who get away with PED’s. Many people continue to use PED’s and will continue to use them until they get caught, and even after they get caught. Performance enhancing drugs should not be allowed in sports, resulting in more fair competition.

Athletes are always looking for an edge on their competition, some choose to go as far as to use anabolic steroids to modify their genetics. Anabolic steroids are used by athletes to improve physical performance, as the synthetic hormone resembles testosterone and promotes muscle growth. These substances are a part of the banned substances list, and are outlawed by all professional sports organizations. But is it time to lift this ban? If steroids were widely accepted, professional sports would become more entertaining, the playing field would become more even, and the distribution and consumption of the enhancers would become safer. Steroids need to become legalized to improve professional sports.

Doping has widely become known as the use of banned substances and practices by sports personnel particularly athletes in an attempt to improve sporting performances. No sensible fan of sport today denies the prevalence of drugs in virtually every major sport, yet none would argue they can ever be eliminated completely. Money alone would seem to guarantee that much. High profile athletes today are competing for high stakes, not just millions, but dozens of millions. The fear of losing everything career, opportunity, contracts, name, fame, and money is pushing more sportsmen all over the world to use performance enhancing drugs, mainly

Performance enhancing drugs is cheating and it needs to be stopped. They need to have more restrictions and consequences for these drugs.

The athletes who use drugs are cheating. They disobey the law and escape the punishment due to the advanced technology which makes it harder to detect the drugs. So, more and more athletes choose to improve their performance by this way. Furthermore, athletes show no respect to themselves and spectators if they take in drugs before the competition. Maybe they do not believe that they have the ability to achieve good results after hard training or can not bear the pressure of failure due to less training. What the spectators want to see is the real ability of the athletes though they also want to watch excellent competitions. In addition, the athletes who use drugs will never experience the joy and fun during the competitions and training. For the athletes who want to use drugs in games, what they are thinking about is only the medals, awards and money, they never really think of the significance of sports so they cannot enjoy the process of the competitions and training.

If one Olympic team is found guilty of taking performance enhancing drugs, the entire team may be disqualified and forced to return any medals they have won. Furthermore, the number of NFL players that weigh more than 300 pounds increased from 10 in 1986 to more than 300 by 2004. An additional reason to ban drugs is alcohol can raise your blood pressure. After everything else, the use of performance-enhancing substances in sport is not new, but the means of enhancement are increasing. Those are all

More and more, of our society views winning more important than itself. Success in competition brings status, popularity, and fame, not to mention college scholarships. Today’s athletes are looking for an advantage over the competition that will make them winners. Unfortunately, the drugs of today are caught up in the high stakes competition frenzy. Of this reality, teenage use of performance improved drugs is growing ever more popular. In colleges and in the professional league a lot of people are doing drugs and its ruining their health and life. Also, if some teenagers take performance drugs they are making them better than everyone else giving themselves an advantage over everyone else which is cheating, so why should they get money