Is Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports Cheating When it comes to the topic of using performance enhancing drugs in sports, most of us will readily agree that the use of performance enhancing drugs by athletes is considered cheating. Where this agreement usually ends, however is on the question of should performance enhancing drugs be legalized and should athletes be allowed to use them. Whereas some are convinced that performance enhancing drugs destroy the integrity of sports, purpose several health risks, and should not be legalized, others maintain that performance enhancing drugs help sports by making them more entertaining, that the health risks have been exaggerated, and that performance enhancing drugs should be legalized for
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If an athlete chooses to use performance enhancing drugs, they are essentially removing themselves from that sport. In the article, “The Use of Performance Enhancing Drug Is Cheating” by Stephen Mumford, Mumford states, “Games can and do evolve in all sorts of ways. But unless one accepts those rules, one is not playing… if one breaks the rules of drug use, one has opted out of the sport” (2). In other words, Mumford believes that an athlete who uses performance enhancing drugs is knowingly and fully aware that they are breaking the rules. By choosing not to follow the rules the athlete has chosen not to play that sport and must take full responsibility for their actions, whether that be a suspension or a lifetime ban. Also athletes can gain an unfair advantage over their competition by using performance enhancing drugs. Performance enhancing drugs can allow the athlete to recover faster from fatigue and will be able to push themselves harder than that of an athlete who is not on that drug. In the article, “Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Not be Legalized” by Michael Rosenberg, Rosenberg states, “Elite spectator sports are supposed to be about the very best that humans can do, not the best drugs we can create” (2). Rosenberg’s point is that athletics should be pure and natural, we want to see humans doing superhuman …show more content…
The use of performance enhancing drugs in men can cause male pattern baldness, breast development, and testicle atrophy (shrinking of the testicles) and in women performance enhancing drugs can cause masculinization, breast size and body fat both decrease and the voice may deepen this is only a couple of the effects performance enhancing drugs can have on the human body. In their article, “Performance Enhancing Drugs Are Harmful to Health” The National Institute on Drug Abuse maintains that, “The adverse side effects of performance enhancing drugs range from temporary to permanent physical changes to stunted growth, heart complications, and serious infections” (1). In making this comment, The National Institute on Drug Abuse urges us to realize the dangers associated with the use of performance enhancing drugs regardless of how safe some athletes believe them to be. This shows us how far athletes will go to win. That they will risk their health and careers just to have a chance at
If an athlete chooses to use performance enhancing drugs, they are essentially removing themselves from that sport. In the article, “The Use of Performance Enhancing Drug Is Cheating” by Stephen Mumford, Mumford states, “Games can and do evolve in all sorts of ways. But unless one accepts those rules, one is not playing… if one breaks the rules of drug use, one has opted out of the sport” (2). In other words, Mumford believes that an athlete who uses performance enhancing drugs is knowingly and fully aware that they are breaking the rules. By choosing not to follow the rules the athlete has chosen not to play that sport and must take full responsibility for their actions, whether that be a suspension or a lifetime ban. Also athletes can gain an unfair advantage over their competition by using performance enhancing drugs. Performance enhancing drugs can allow the athlete to recover faster from fatigue and will be able to push themselves harder than that of an athlete who is not on that drug. In the article, “Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Not be Legalized” by Michael Rosenberg, Rosenberg states, “Elite spectator sports are supposed to be about the very best that humans can do, not the best drugs we can create” (2). Rosenberg’s point is that athletics should be pure and natural, we want to see humans doing superhuman …show more content…
The use of performance enhancing drugs in men can cause male pattern baldness, breast development, and testicle atrophy (shrinking of the testicles) and in women performance enhancing drugs can cause masculinization, breast size and body fat both decrease and the voice may deepen this is only a couple of the effects performance enhancing drugs can have on the human body. In their article, “Performance Enhancing Drugs Are Harmful to Health” The National Institute on Drug Abuse maintains that, “The adverse side effects of performance enhancing drugs range from temporary to permanent physical changes to stunted growth, heart complications, and serious infections” (1). In making this comment, The National Institute on Drug Abuse urges us to realize the dangers associated with the use of performance enhancing drugs regardless of how safe some athletes believe them to be. This shows us how far athletes will go to win. That they will risk their health and careers just to have a chance at