Should Professional Athletes be Able to Use Steroids to Enhance Their Performance?

Should Professional Athletes be Able to Use Steroids to Enhance Their Performance?

Introduction

Every professional athlete admires excellence in athletic competition to satisfy his desire for recognition and fame. Unfortunately, the desire to win and remain famous in the sports arena has made some athletes who are determined to win at all costs use anabolic steroids despite evidence indicating the drugs can inflict irreversible physical harm and affect the athlete. Although steroids have some effects on human health, some will argue that using them will help enhance the performance of athletes. In most instances, Athletes participate in Marathon to win something that pushes most of them to pursue other means to achieve the dream of winning a medal for their country. Those who oppose the use of steroids to enhance athletes' performance say that those who use them are breaking the rules and getting a fair advantage over others (Mazzeo, 2018). But those who support the idea view it as the best idea to bring equality in the athletes' performance. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss the significance of allowing athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs like steroids and see if it can help level the playing field for all athletes. It will also look at how the use of steroids can affect athletes' health and performance.

Reason Steroids use should be accepted in Sports

The athletes who use doping in Canada and worldwide undermine the principles of open, safe and fair competition. Although if all the athletes are allowed to use steroids in competition, it will give them equal energy to compete. It is true that allowing everyone to take performance-enhancing drugs like steroids will help level the field for each athlete. Allowing professional athletes to use steroids will help remove the effects of genetic inequality, thus making sporting competitions promote equality. The decision to allow the use of Steroids will help to level the playing field among the athletes and make it higher and much more competitive. Today, most people are interested in the sport and are much interested in the competition they observe; for that case, legalizing performance-enhancing drugs would help athletes climb higher, thus attracting more fans to watch the games (Kanayama, 2018). It is also true that allowing professional athletes to use steroids would help make life much easier for professional sports organizations currently tasked with many mandates, such as managing convoluted anti-doping policies (Mazzeo, 2018). Although those who oppose my argument would say that allowing the use of steroids can pose health risks to the athletes involved, this can be mitigated if well-established policies are put in place. Plus, if the steroids are allowed to be used by the athletes, they could be safely distributed and regulated to stop misuse that could lead to affect their health. Also, if the use of steroids is enhanced equally among the athletes will help to curb cheating among sports professionals. Therefore, the idea of making steroids legal among athletes will help improve athletes' performance, making it more interesting than today. The company that manufactures steroids and other doping drugs will improve their revenues because the legalization of drugs will help boost their sales in the market.

The debate on the use of steroids to enhance performance among professional athletes has had a wide argument among people and authorities. The supporters of the idea think that is the best way to make sporting activities leveled to enhance equality and minimize discrimination due to masculinity among sportsmen and women. It is clear the use of these doping plays a significant role in improving the performance of athletes, but on the contrary, the drug entails serious damage to the athlete's health (Katz, 2016). The effects of steroids on human health have been contributing factors that those opposing it have been that it should not be allowed to enhance performance among the athletes because it will result in unfair competition among the athletes. Professional athletes must be allowed to participate in the competition without using steroids as that will help boost their health and bring tests into the competition. Although the promoters of the idea can argue that the use of steroids to enhance performance among the employees is important to the athletes, they never look at its negative factor.

Reactions from opposers of steroids and sports organizations

Although some people believe that the use of steroids to enhance performance among professional employees, others have maintained that it is hypocritical for society to encourage consumers to use drugs to boost their performance. Based on different research articles, it has been indicated that exposure to anabolic steroids among the athletes damages human health, leading to diseases such as liver cancer. The opposers of the idea view that athletes who use steroids to enhance performance are endangering their health, something that needs to be avoided to enhance positive competition among sportsmen and women. Also, many sports organizations have banned the use of performance-enhancing drugs among the employees because of its negative outcomes. To show how sporting organizations such as FIFA and IAAF have been concerned with the issue of doping, it is significant that it has a wide effect not only on sporting but on humans themselves (Force, 2011). Over the years, different sporting organizations have focused on ensuring that doping is not allowed among athletes. For instance, the Canadian Centre for ethics in sport has indicated that doping poses a serious threat to human health and thus needs to mitigate its use among athletes. It has also shown that enhancing the use of drugs such as AAS undermines principles of sport such as safe competition and fairness, which will make more people not enjoy watching the game going in the future. Although some people may view doping prevention as an impossibility and thus need to allow all doping to be legalized, others disagree by pointing out harmful long-term effects of doping on the individual's health. Thus, due to the significant effect of AAS on human health, many people have opposed the idea by viewing that both government and other stakeholders should help mitigate the use of the substance among athletes to minimize its effect on youths going in the future.

Conclusions

Although the use of steroids can be viewed as important in leveling the playing field among athletes looking at its effects on human health can make it impossible for the country and sporting fraternity to accept its use. It has been shown by the analysis of all researchers that using performance-enhancing drugs has significant risks to individual health by allowing the athletes to use them may affect their future wellbeing. Based on my findings, legalizing the use of steroids can help to level the playing field among athletes. For instance, allowing the use of steroids among the athletes will help boost the performance of the athletes and help make a business that is currently doing illegal business progress. The Canadian Centre for ethics in sport disagreed with legalizing the use of steroids to enhance performance because according to its view, sports need to be ethical and fair for all athletics; thus, allowing doping will lead to cheating. It is also shown that even if the athletes are allowed to use steroids to enhance performance, it will be hard to manage the whole athletes in the country because the cost of regulating the amount of use among the athletes will be high (Katz, 2016). From the view of the task force and other research I carried out, it is clear that doping poses a serious threat to athletes' health and the general wellbeing of sports in the whole world. In that case, allowing the professional athletes to use to enhance performance is unethical because it will seriously affect the image of sports in Canada and across the globe. It has also been indicated that allowing professional athletes to use steroids to enhance performance will devalue the principles of safe competition, fairness and openness. Many countries like the United States, Canada, and the UK have been at the forefront to ensure that sporting is an ethical field where people are free from drug use and have a healthy life. Therefore, doping should be discouraged not only for moral and social reasons but also for toxicological reasons.

References

Force, C. T. (2011). Performance enhancing drugs pose a significant health risk for athletes, children and youth: Final report of the task force on the use of performance enhancing drugs in football.

Kanayama, G., Hudson, J. I., DeLuca, J., Isaacs, S., Baggish, A., Weiner, R., ... & Pope Jr, H. G. (2015). Prolonged hypogonadism in males following withdrawal from anabolic–androgenic steroids: an under‐recognized problem. Addiction, 110(5), 823-831.

Katz, J. (2016, January 23). Should we accept steroid use in sports? Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2008/01/23/18299098/should-we-accept-steroid-use-in-sports

Mazzeo, F. (2018). Anabolic steroid use in sports and in physical activity: overview and analysis. Sport Mont, 16(3), 113-118.