Essay Sample on Sports Doping: Unethical and Forbidden by Regulating Organizations

Introduction

Sports remain to be a major economic and social activity to the society that rewards in terms of prestige, fame, and revenues. These rewards let some athletes be tempted to cheat the results by using performance-enhancing drugs; a practice referred to as doping. For many competitions, doping is termed unethical and is forbidden by most regulating organizations. Probation factors may comprise health issues of doping substances, equality of opportunities amongst competitors, and the effect to the public. Drug testing in sports has been a multi-faceted practice present for a long time now. Either the winning competitors or randomly selected individuals from a sport can be selected for testing. Drug testing for doping in sport is a worthwhile endeavor as it ensures the health and well-being of the contestant, the assurance of free and fair competition, and the deterrence of drug use.

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Drug testing is a practice that can be used as a strategy to ensure the health and well-being of the competitors. The World Anti-Doping Agency cites a substance as illegal as soon as it is a risk to one's well-being (Cadwallader, De La Torre, Tieri & Botre, 2010). Using drugs in athletics alters the spirit of contesting which comprises the human body, mind, and spirit for which health is a characteristic. Athletes perform well when their bodies deliver sufficient oxygen to body muscles. While blood cells are responsible for carrying oxygen, any stimulation by the EPO hormone of a human's body leads to their overproduction which leads to high packed cell volume (PCV) (Schwandt, Heyduck, Gunga & Rocker, 1991). Attempts of raising the PCV are noted to cause implications to a competitor's health. The figures are 50% limits of PCV beyond which there will be a risk of harm. Following health effects that include stroke may be prevalent to athletics using doping drugs. During sports, dehydration leads to the thickening of a competitor's blood, causing an increase in blood pressure. What would have been otherwise perceived as a low risk of stroke could elevate during exercise.

The use of EPO in sporting activities such as biking and long jumps may be endemic. The continued use of EPO has led to its hard detection. The amounts of EPO consumed globally are more than those in-taken by most patients. Drug testing is important as it may lead to recommendations of alternative ways to increase blood cells (Haugen, 2004). For altitude training, PCV levels can be pushed to maximum, which may be dangerous and to the utmost extent, fatal. There have been hypoxic air machines that have been used for the stimulation of altitude training (Robach, Schmitt, Brugniaux, Nicolet, Duvallet, Fouillot & Richalet, 2006). The body would then effectively respond through releasing the natural EPO and enhancing blood cells, which may be safer for athletes other than using performance-enhancing drugs. This is even much more efficient than doping as it can lead to a legal boost that is important for international competitions. Boosting can also be done through autologous blood doping (Leigh-Smith, 2004). It is in that process that athletes remove their blood, stores it and reinjects it to themselves after their body is healed and some blood has been added. The method is much safer as it may not lead to poor health outcomes compared to the performance-enhancing drugs that may damage one's health.

There can only be perceived as one limit in sport - safety. An Olympics that consisted of people who died before, during, and after a competition would not be viable. The only thing that matter is the capacity of a competitor to successfully finish a competition, which is attributed to their health and fitness. Drug testing may lead to the identification of the use of unsafe drugs, which may later be banned or monitored for their use. A policy founded on fairness may be made, that regards the safety of doping while focuses on the equality and honesty in a competition (Pope Jr, Wood, Rogol, Nyberg, Bowers & Bhasin, 2013). Through such a policy, various competitors may be hindered from using drugs that enhance their performance. While taking an EPO to a safe level such as 0.5 may be ethical, it may still be harmful, and through a law created for the athletes, any involvements in EPOs during competition may lead to punishment (Rossi, Hallett, Rossini, Pascual-Leone & Safety of TMS Consensus Group, 2009). Natural inequality has always been an issue in sporting both to the public and competitors.

The use of substances including anabolic steroids may lead to serious harm to the users. These, alongside EPOs testing, may contribute to the safety and well-being of competitors (Beamish, 2011). Various set policies on the health and well-being of athletes may contribute to the rigorous and regular evaluation of a competitor's safety. There are incentives to develop undetectable drugs that may have short-term advantages to their users but still harm the individuals (Savulescu & Foddy, 2011). Many anti-doping agencies have made and have the potential to implement drug tester that detects such drugs (Houlihan, 2002). Finding some content in the bloodstream of the competitors may make them safer while on the grounds as many drugs in the world have side effects. Any tests done ought to be sensitive to the use of substances and more importantly, the health and well-being of an athlete.

Even though, there cannot be a difference between letting the blood count of an athlete raise by altitude training, taking EPOs or using the hypoxic air machine. The only limitation is that EPO can be considered illegal. There are competitors with high PCV for which they may be lucky (Beamish, 2011). Others can afford the machines to increase their red blood cells and elevate their oxygen rates during competition. All these are unfair to the minority who may consider going for competition for either not affording the machine, having low PCV, and being restricted by law to take doping medications. To enhance fairness, drug testing may be required for these competitors to seek their red blood cell counts before a competition. Were it not for doping, anti-doping agencies would never have been established, and everyone would be let to take EPOs to level the playing round. Discouraging doping through testing and elimination of competitors who have recently used the drugs is an enhancement of equal and fair results.

Testing may also assist in the identification of genetic information inherent with health conditions that may not be revealed by an athlete. Drug testing cannot be considered an invasion of privacy, and every athlete is liable for testing for recreational and performance-enhancing drugs (Diacin, Parks & Allison, 2003). These conditions may include Sexually Transmitted Infections, and the use of contraceptives (Mazanov, 2009). This information may be valuable for drug testers and medical professionals in evaluating the implications that the use of various drugs may have on the health of the participants. Whether drug testers encourage or discourage the activity, testing is valuable as it can avoid further negative effects on the well-being of athletes.

Drug testing is an assurance of fair competition. International bodies such as International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) discourage the use of doping drugs for reasons of trust in athletes as well as their sporting organizations (Lambert, 2009: Docherty, 2008: Ettinger, 1992). Fairness and equality are the grievances for most athletes, especially those who do not use doping substances. Furthermore, the many anti-doping movements have been put in place with the primary goal of preserving fair competition (Lambert, 2009). Sporting federations cannot also be required to prove the intention of athletes to consume doping agents as they would be contributing to the hampering of equitable results. Anti-doping policies that guide drug testing are concerned with the potential unbalance of the playing ground (Lambert, 2009).

The spirit of contesting is aimed at elevating the spirit, body, and mind, and has a characteristic of ethics, fair play, and equitability. The competitors who win legitimately do so because of their genetic lottery. There are genetic tests present for testing the competitors with the highest winning potentials. For instance, the ACE gene is responsible for long distance events such as long runs (Thompson & Binder-Macleod, 2006). The individuals with another gene besides the ACE would be better categorized as proficient in short distances. Most Black Africans would do better in short distanced events as a result of their superior abilities (Savulescu, Foddy & Clayton, 2004). Some instances of discrimination may be present for the genetically unfit individuals as it is a province of the genetically competitive.

It is imperial to balance ethics and values in sport provided the fact that sport is a relentless and inherent competition. It is evident that at the edge of competition, various individuals including cheerleaders may do anything possible to acquire a competitive advantage (Bergmann-Drewe, 1999). Some have the thought that performance-enhancing drugs have greater advantages than talent and hard work by themselves. Most of these cheerleaders may encourage EPOs to avoid issues with competing at real disadvantages, taking one's talents elsewhere and joining in cheating (Smoll, Cumming & Smith, 2011). Doping is mainly aimed at providing fair contests and without its control, there would be the impossibility of containment of doping substances. Changes of rules, the recommendation of equipment and doping control all share the common issue of promotion of fairness (Murray, 1983). From an ethically-based argument, testing for drugs in sporting competitions may be considered ethical and leading to fairness in contests.

In regards to deterrence, the anti-doping law is commonly based on a detection-based deterrence approach that athletes found doping can be punished for them to deter their accomplices from involving themselves in similar acts (Petroczi, 2007). Their accomplices may be frightened by the potential consequences of being caught which may extend to even being eliminated from competitions. Even with the deterrence system, there are defensive doping approaches that athletes build a belief for their doping before they can compete. These beliefs may draw more contenders into a competition, which would result in doping. Such desire that leads to athletes winning at all costs can be curbed through deterrence.

Drug use and detection contests have been on the rise, and since the regulators can be of disadvantage, voluntary testing may lead to an effective deterrence of users. The formation of the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) was aimed at curbing doping in boxing and martial arts through the separation of sports into two parallel but competing leagues, which comprise one with doping and one without doping (Ali, Emrah, Fahri, Necmettin & Gulcan, 2010). Both parallelisms of leagues may not lead to a solution but drug testing that enhances deterrence can curb the challenge of drug use during and out of sports. Deterrence is important as there can be realized lesser cases of breaking the rules and using drugs in and out of a clean contest where incentives related to cheating can persist (Robinson, 2002). Deterrence may also eliminate the sense that doping creates a level playing field (Posner, 2007). This may lead to the changing of what would have rather been an ascetic exhibition to a clean and fair competition amongst athletes.

Deterrence of athletes from drug use may lead to an enhanced morality, and regardless of the league divisions and testing, doping is considered immoral. Deterrence eliminates the concept o...