Performance Enhancing Drugs - Essay Example

?Performance Enhancing Drugs The main issue in the second discussion was the morality of using drugs to improve physical or memory performance with the aid of drugs. Proponents of the use of drugs to improve performance state that it improves physical and mental versatility, and this can be in no way harmful. However, the opponents state that human beings are intelligent enough as they are and have made many strides without aid. Aiding this advancement using drug use would lower the value of any work done by an individual. This means that the use of drugs would reduce the importance of hard work and reduce the impact of many earned successes. The value of many earned successes would be reduced since they would be probably earned using drugs. Prior to this debate, I had not done any research on the use of any kind of performance drugs, and automatically understood them to be dangerous or harmful. For example, I had no idea that there were kinds of drugs in the market that could be used to improve the memory of and individual. Therefore, I concluded that their side effects were not clearly understood by the population or that the drugs were expensive to be accessed by everybody or for use to be done by the whole population. Despite my ignorance, I was still opposed to the idea of using any kind of performance enhancing drugs; there was no compulsion to use these drugs to improve competitive performance. Moreover, since the use of drugs had always been illegal in both collegiate and professional sports, the idea itself always gave me a negative image. My misgivings were, however, addressed after I read The Ethical Brain and participated in the class debate. After this, I reviewed my perceived constraints and started considering the morality of using performance-enhancing drugs. As a result, the debate made me conclude that these drugs could actually have a constructive effect on the society; that the provision and use of enhancers would be an ethical morally positive decision. I changed my view on the use of performance enhancing drugs when I understood that efficiency in performance would be improved without any negative effect. Most of the opponents to the use of enhancers used the argument that they reduce work value in the society because users would become dependent on them. As a result of this, the individuals would place less emphasis on hard work since with the use of enhancers, they would succeed anyway. However, the human race is a very competitive one and would not relax on any work done, and the knowledge that competitors have access to the same drugs would motivate individuals to work harder. This means that the use of drugs would still increase the competitiveness, and hence the work value, in society. Consequently, success in work would still increase with the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Both in the class debate and in The Ethical Brain, the main argument against the use of enhancers is the reduction in the value placed to work and personal achievement in all areas of competitiveness. However, I am of the opinion that using these drugs could lead to major advancements than seen in previous years. The use of enhancers would serve to increase the acuity of an individual, which would in turn improve the learning process and lead to major achievements in different disciplines. Since the search for answers in different fields has always been sought, whether in medical, physical or social sciences, any factor that would give a breakthrough would be highly appreciated. According to Gazzaniga, “Smart describes how well one processes information and figures out tasks. Once something has been figured out, much work must then be applied to the solution, and the smartest people in the world rarely say that the work applied to solutions is easy” (Gazzaniga  83-84). The underlying argument is that the use of these drugs would not simplify any achievement, and any work would still require hard effort to be achieved. The idea that sports would be less enjoyable if athletes used enhancers is moot because most of the athletes would be using the drugs. This means that all competitors would have the same edge in terms of enhancers, and would therefore have to have an extra factor in order to win. The athletes would need to be different in the experiences and training that make them win games, just as it is without the use of drugs. Moreover, competitors would react in different ways to different situations, which would make the games just as interesting to watch as they are now. Despite the opinions of some individuals that games where drug use is allowed would not be as enjoyable as they currently are, the potential achievements in cognitive functions far outweigh these arguments. As already stated, the use of drugs gives scientists the potential to make a lot of breakthroughs in different fields, a factor that is way better that the enjoyment derived from games. The use of drugs to improve efficiency is one other factor that heavily favors its adoption. In some careers, the efficiency of one individual is key to success or failure. For example, Gazzaniga presents some interesting research findings in the book, one of them being that of an experiment in Stanford University where pilots were given either the drug donepezil or a placebo. From the results, it was concluded that pilots who took the drug had a better ability to recall emergency training procedures than the pilots who took the placebos. The implications of such a scientific discovery would go a long way in application to the general population, which in turn increases the need to use performance enhancers. In his book, the author also mentioned a study done on Einstein’s brain that indicated that he had more glial cells than neurons in his brain than would be expected from in a human being. People have continually proposed that this could have been a factor in Einstein’s myriad successes since the cells mentioned allow the brain to process faster. Gazziniga’s reaction to this finding is pointed; he states “Could this have helped Einstein come up with the theory of relativity?” (Gazzaniga 82). This means that the use of performance enhancing drugs could then be targeted at specific areas, for example, in increasing glial cells in the left side frontal part of the brain. This would then increase the general acuity of the population. From the discussion above, it is evident that the use of enhancers would be a positive factor in the achievement of success. It has been seen that the value of work would not be adversely affected by the use of performance enhancing drugs; instead, hard work would still be a factor in the achievement of success. In this regard, I am now of the opinion that the use of performance enhancers is morally right. The final decision in this lies with the individual and should not be criminalized or penalized in society. The use of performance enhancing drugs improves effectiveness in work and only helps to improve experience, practice or training. Read More