Performance enhancing drugs (also known as PED) are legal and illegal substances used by professional athletes to enhance their performance. Performance enhancing drug use by professional athletes is a topic of medical, ethical, and social debate. PED usage by professional athletes has advocates arguing that the negative health consequences reported are grossly exaggerated and they contend that it’s an athlete’s personal decision to accept any potential harmful health hazards. They believe that performance enhancing drug usage is just part of a sport’s natural progression and nothing more than the incorporation of enhanced training approaches and new sport technologies. Additionally, they believe that the use of PED by professional athletes helps them to achieve the highest levels of athletic performance and puts a better product before the public. Opponents of performance enhancing drug use by professional athletes argue that their usage is extremely harmful, and possibly lethal to an athlete’s well-being. Such use makes a professional athlete a fraud, gaining an unfair competitive advantage, violating the competitive spirit of athleticism, and sending an immoral message to youngsters. Opponents further argue that the use of performance enhancing drugs by professional athletes is unethical behavior.
PED use is one of the most controversial and talked-about issues in professional sports. The professional sports most impacted are baseball, basketball, and football, which give the PED topic a tremendous amount of visibility and discussion because of the vast popularity and enormous audiences of these sports. There are many arguments on each side of the issue regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs in the professional sporting world and particularly the ethical issues that are associated with such use by professional athletes. Professional sports have long been a large part of our culture; generally making professional athletes well respected and looked up upon. The glory and fame that comes with being a champion has created a dilemma for many professional athletes in considering whether to use performance enhancing drugs to get that extra required edge that they feel they need to rise to the highest performance levels of their sport. With both sides of the debate taking vastly differing positions on the use of performance enhancing drugs by professional athletes and thereby creating challenging and complex management implications, is PED usage by professional athletes ethically “right” or “wrong” behavior? How should sporting teams and league management deal with PED use by their professional athletes?
Is PED Use by Professional Athletes Ethically “Right” or Ethically “Wrong” Behavior?
Ethics entails “right” and “wrong” behavior. Ethics are a set of rules which guides individuals in their personal conduct and interactions with others within a particular group or culture (dictionary.com). I define ethics as how things are according to established rules and recognize that ethics can vary from groups, cultures, and societies. We generally face group/cultural/societal disapproval if we act unethically. I use a simple concept of ethical behavior to guide my personal conduct that includes doing what is “right” when no one is watching or doing what is “right” when it appears that everyone else around me is doing it “wrong.” So my manner in determining whether performance enhancing drug use is ethically “right” or “wrong” behavior for professional athletes would be to determine if professional athletes would willingly take their PED usage out into the open, freely practice, and openly admit to such usage.
Medical, Ethical, and Social Issues Underlying the PED Debate
There are medical, ethical, and social issues underlying the debate on performance enhancing drug use by professional athletes. From a medical perspective the issue of PED use by professional athletes comes down to answering two simple questions of whether or not the use of PED by professional athletes is medically harmful, and do professional athletes have the right to do whatever they want to their bodies regardless of the medical consequences? While PED can greatly enhance an athlete’s performance on the playing field, use of performance enhancing drugs, has been clinically proven to be both extremely dangerous and cause numerous negative long-term health consequences (Johnson). While proponents of PED use argue that professional athletes should be able to do what they want to their bodies this is contrary to society’s laws and regulations governing the use of illegal and harmful drugs.
Performance enhancing drug use by professional athletes also touches on several ethical issues including; gaining an unfair competitive advantage, coercion, failing as a role model for younger athletes, and poor sportsmanship. Many professional athletes take an apathetic approach to existing PED rules and regulations and any ethical standards that they might be violating. They believe that their professional sporting career is very limited time wise and they must do whatever they need to do to get to the top of their game.(Beamish) Many professional athletes would argue, why not use PED to gain fame and take home a few extra millions dollars in salary? Is it really worthwhile behaving in such an “unethical” manner and possibly destroying your name and reputation for short term fame and fortune just to become one of the highest performing and compensated athletes in a particular sport? Many people believe that professional athletes have an ethical responsibility to be role models for younger athletes and that PED usage sends a wrong message. Opponents argue that the task of being role models for young people is the responsibility of politicians, teachers, and soldiers. What if a professional athlete does not want to be a role model for young people? Just because someone is playing a professional sport at a high level does one have to be a role model? I think that the problem resides not in sports per se or with being role models but with the enormous amounts of money that the best athletes in each professional sport are paid. Money can corrupt people, and if an athlete can make a few extra million dollars for being faster and stronger then someone should he not try and get the extra advantage? If someone can take the easy way and use a substance that will help break a record or earn more money should there even be a worry about what rules were being broken?
PED use by professional athlete also involves social issues. Social issues include drugs versus technology in increasing athletic field performance, possible legalization of drugs, and public support of professional sports (Kiesbye). Most professional athletes acknowledge that PED use is cheating and that if their usage is made public their names and reputations will be associated with the word “cheater” for the remainder of their career. In spite of the significant risks, many professional athletes are willing to take the risk. They take the risk because they have been working their entire lives to make it to the highest levels of their sport and if PED use is going to help with the journey to the top they are willing to take the risk. On the other side of the argument, why should society care if they cheat? Sporting competitions are much more exciting for the fans if they are watching more home runs, hits, and more action if PED use is allowed. Added action, increased fan attendance, and hugely increased revenues for sports teams and leagues creates major issues for management and league officials in determining which side of the argument to take and how active they need to be in enforcing league PED usage rules.
The Role of Public Opinion and Special Interest Groups
The debate on professional athletes PED usage would be incomplete without a discussion of the role of public opinion and special interest groups in the debate. Public opinion and special interest groups have significant power in influencing politicians and associated legislative action along with sporting team and league officials. While a majority of Americans favor drug testing in professional sports, the same majority also believes that PED will be a part of professional sports (Roberts). Currently, there is a deep division of public opinion on PED usage by professional athletes, and increased focus and visibility on the issue could cause the U.S. Congress to institute increased rules, regulation, standards, and punishments associated with PED usage in professional sports. Star athletes earn a lot of money and fame but only have a very short time to rise to the top of their professions. Additionally, professional sports are just like any other venue seeking the attention of the viewing public and the significant money that comes along with this increased public interest. Increased performance on the athletic fields, through whatever means, can mean greatly increased interest on the part of the public and the significant sums of money associated with such interests. Sporting teams and league management have a similar dilemma in that an increase in fans and team support usually means increased revenue for them. Increased attention and revenue can tempt teams and league management to look the other way in enforcing rules and regulations regarding the use of PED by their players and league super star professional athletes.
Summary and Conclusions
Now for the debate on why the use of performance enhancing drugs should be banned in sports and why PED should remain illegal. Most people would say that sports and drugs use should not be mixed. When professional athletes take a PED they are improving their athletic performance through chemistry, not through improved skill or practice like athletes that are not using performance-enhancing drugs. PED usage is giving the drug-assisted athletes an unfair competitive advantage over the non-drug assisted athletes. (Taylor). If PED were allowed what about the athletes that don’t want to use them? They could be forced out of the sport because PED create an unfair advantage for people that are using them. When athletes are taking PED how do we know what the athlete’s real abilities are without using these drugs; could they still be as good at the sport? There are so many health problems with taking them that do we really want to see the end result of what will happen to athlete’s that use them? It is not fair to the athletes that do not use PEDs, why should all their hard work be jeopardized just because others want to take a shortcut and easier path to success. If these drugs were legal in sports then would everyone take them? Athletes take them because they want to have an advantage over their competitors and perform at a higher level; they are looking for an edge. If everyone started using PED’s then athletes would have to take even more then the maxim doses which in turn could cause more damage to their bodies and also the games they play including the more dangerous sports where players physically hit each other.
Drug use in sports is cheating. If drug use in sports is allowed, how would we be able to determine who is the best at that sport if athletes are using performance enhancers to perform at higher levels? Basically, all we would see is who the biggest drug user is. People attend sporting events to witness history and watch athletes perform at high levels, including breaking records that have stood for years. In on book I found the other brings up a good point and says, “How would we be able to measure if someone was really better today, than someone that played the game years ago (Burns)?” It becomes very difficult. It would make winning not as special anymore and ruin the meaning of the game. The use of PED by professional athletes is an ethically “wrong” behavior.
Expected Future Developments
Performance enhancing drug use in professional sports will continue to be banned and the penalties associated with such use will increase significantly in the years ahead. We will continue to educate professional athletes on the grave ethical and social consequences and health dangers associated with performance enhancement drug usage. Penalties associated with PED use will become extremely harsh and sporting leagues will initiate a three strikes and you are out rule, “banned for life” from the sport. The first penalty will be a one-year ban and loss of an entire year’s salary. The second strike will be a three year ban and teams will be allowed to terminate a player’s contract and will not be responsible for a contract termination payment. Finally, the third strike will be a lifetime ban from that sport, never allowing an athlete to compete again. Taking away a sport from someone that loves to play the sport and also taking away all of their money will demonstrate to athletes that team and league management is serious about removing PED use from professional sports.
Professional Athlete PED Use and the Managerial Implications
Like most ethical issues the subject of professional athlete PED use is a multi-faceted topic with managerial implications. First and foremost team and league management must take the position that there is no place for PED use in the sporting world. Professional sports have been widely followed for years without the use of performance-enhancing drugs and they will remain successful in the future without them. Sporting team and league officials must take an active role in removing PED use from their sports. Their efforts cannot be passive and talk only! No professional athletic team or league management can be tempted to overlook PED use because of the tremendous added visibility and money that PED aid competitiveness might bring to their sporting team or league. In many respects sporting team management and league officials are faced with many of the same medical, ethical, and social issues facing professional athletes in deciding whether to use PED in enhancing performance.

References

Barnard, Matt. “Athletes Will Never Stop Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs” 19 Nov. 2014

Beamish, Rob. Steroids: A New Look At Performance-Enhancing Drugs / Rob Beamish. N.p: Santa Barbra, Calif. : Praeger, c2011., 2011. Old Dominion University Catalog Web. 13 Nov 2014.

Burns, Christopher N. Doping in Sports, Editor. n.p.: New York : Nova Science Publishers, c2006., 2006. Old Dominion University Catalog. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

Johnson, Kirk. “Performance-Enhancing Substances Raise Serious Ethical Questions for Athletes.” 07 Nov. 2014

Kiesbye, Stefan. Steroids / Stefan Kiesbye, Book Editor. N.p.: Detroit : Greenhaven Press, c2007., 2007. Old Dominion University Catalog. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

Roberts, Gary. “What Should Baseball Do About Drugs?” 13 December 2004. Legal Affairs. 12 Nov. 2014.

Shuster, Sam. “There’s No Proof That Sports Drugs Enhance Performance.” 4 Aug 2006. The Guardian. 5 Nov. 2014.

Taylor, William N. Anabolic Steroids And The Athlete / William N. Taylor. n.p.: Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, c2002., 2002. Old Dominion University Catalog. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

West, Doug. “Steroids Are Harmful.” 10 Nov. 2014