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In sports today, there is still the pressing ethical dilemma with performance enhancing drugs in sports. With this, the drugs that are involved bring enhancement to the athlete’s physical abilities but through ways that cause problems in the sports world. In this, the first ethical/moral value that is violated is both fairness and respect for other participants. The second ethical/moral value that is violated is health in sports. The third and final ethical/moral value that is violated is character. Performance enhancing drugs has caused major problems to sport itself through these drugs destroying the ethics that represent what sports is all about. 

In sports, athletes are always looking to obtain a competitive advantage over their opponents. Sometimes this involves improving upon their skills through training. Other times it is done through training to improve their physical abilities. This is where the problem of performance enhancing drugs comes into play. According to an article written by mayo clinic’s staff some drugs that fall under this category are anabolic steroids, designer steroids, androstenedione, human growth hormone, erythropoietin, and more (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2020). With this, athletes use these performance enhancing drugs to get better and faster results in a shorter period of time. Examples of well-known athletes who engaged in these drugs are and not limited to Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong, Ben Johnson, and more. From this list of athletes there rises a common theme in all of them besides the use of performance enhancing drugs. That common theme was that all of these athletes before getting caught had major success in their respected sports. This demonstrates that the drugs they used helped them perform better than their competition but was done so through using a substance which provides results without having to go through the time and commitment that regular training requires to be successful. This is why over a period of time leagues and organizational committees put a ban on these enhancing substances because of problems that started to arise. These problems included both physical harm to the bodies of athletes in the long run and these drugs represented many violations to the ethics of sports.  Overall, performance enhancing drugs gave athletes a way of finding success that provided an unequal playing field which in turn developed a major problem in sports that is still an issue to this day. 

The problem that surrounds performance enhancing drugs is not only about the athlete’s health, but also the ethical issues/dilemmas that arise from it. With this, one of the first ethical issues that is presented through performance enhancing drugs is the form of cheating. This is because “Since steroids work so well, they create an unfair advantage for those who take them, and this breaks the social contract athletes have implicitly agreed to: We are going to have a fair contest.” (Dillingham, 2014, para. 6). In this explanation of cheating, it violates two key moral values to sports. These values are according to article done by Perihan Elif Ekmekci who lists both fairness and respect for other participants as fundamental values to sports (2016). This violates the respect for other participants through violating the fair play contract that they agree to which demonstrates the lack of respect for their fellow competitors. In another explanation, it demonstrates that performance enhancing drugs are cheating because by “ Taking performance-enhancing drugs is not abiding by the World Anti-Doping Code…” (TSFX, 2019, P.1). Along with this, it also breaks the rules and laws that leagues have set in place against these performance enhancing drugs. This demonstrates another violation in the ethics of sport through violating the ethic of respect for rules and laws (Ekmekci, 2016). Altogether, these different explanations demonstrate why taking performance enhancing drugs is a form a cheating and how that violates the ethics/moral values of sport. 

The second ethical/moral value that is violated through performance enhancing drugs use in sport is health. In this, these performance enhancing drugs provide serious risks to athletes’ health. In one article, it is mentioned that “Short-term effects such as nausea and increased sweating can quickly escalate into long-term effects such as thickening of the blood causing blood clots and consequently death…” (TSFX, 2019, P.1). This violates the ethic in sport of health because of both the short term and long-term effects that it has on these athletes’ health. In another article, it shows that “the toxicities of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) which are among the well-known drugs used to enhance the performance of athletes include sudden death, thromboembolic phenomena, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, stroke, seizures, and psychiatric conditions” (Ekmekci, 2016, P.3). This shows how serious this drug which falls under the category of performance enhancing drug puts the athlete’s health at major risk. This in itself demonstrates a major violation to the ethical/moral value of health in sports. Altogether, these side effects of taking these performance enhancing drugs demonstrates the ethical violation of health in sports. 

The last ethical/moral value that is violated through performance enhancing drugs use in sport is character. This value of character is not only violated in the sport itself but also through spectators and sponsorship. In an article, it mentions that “When an elite athlete admits to using performance enhancing drugs or produces a positive test it often establishes a negative message in the minds of young people thus another reason why drug use is considered unethical.” (TSFX, 2019, P. 2). This demonstrates that it can affect the character of the athlete through the way they are perceived by spectators after the discovery of taking the drug as well as affects the youth’s character development because of them viewing those athletes as role models. In another article, it is mentioned that “Sponsors of elite athletes who are found to be taking prohibited substances may find their business or individual reputation significantly reduced often resulting in a loss in profit and growth.” (TSFX, 2019, P. 2). This shows that it also affects sponsorship through associating those businesses character with a negative perspective. Altogether, both points demonstrate the violation of the ethical/moral value of character through the use of performance enhancing drugs. 

            In closing, performance enhancing drugs continues to provide serious violations to the ethical/moral values in sports. With this, cheating becomes a key integration that disregards fairness and respect. Along with this, the serious side effects of these drugs violates the health of athletes. Finally, the negative perspective of being caught with these drugs creates bad reputation on the character of athletes, spectators, and sponsors. The performance enhancing drugs will continue to provide ethical dilemmas in sport unless there are serious changes made to only to sports themselves, but medical practices as well. 

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Its clear that the need to use performanceenhancing drugs is outweighed by the consequences and issu... View the full answer