Enhancing Drugs: Why Should They Be Allowed in Sports - Assignment Example

Performance Enhancing Drugs: Why Should They Be Allowed in Sports? Introduction The topic of the performance enhancement drugsin sports is one that has elicited mixed opinions from various quotas. The main motivation is that the drugs have been argued to have both negative and positive impacts both on the athletes and on the game itself. Currently, the performance enhancement drugs are banned and cannot be used in any sport (Anabolic Steroid Abuse, 4). Those who engage or partake of these drugs and those found to have taken the drugs are usually banned from the sport. The use of the performance enhancing drugs is associated with several benefits. Some of these benefits include improved strength as well as performance. This research explores the use of performance drugs in baseball. The paper looks into the benefits that the use of the performance enhancing drugs will bring to the sport. This is done by looking at the positive points and impacts that the use of these drugs will have on the athletes and the sport of baseball. Freedom of Choice Over the years, athletes have been barred from using the performance enhancing drugs on the basis that it gave them unfair advantage over the other players. Moreover, other stakeholders have argued that the baring athletes from using the performance enhancing drugs helps in ensuring that the athletes remain healthy. However this is an act that can be termed as an act of coercion. If the baseball athletes are of the opinion that they want to use the performance enhancing drugs to enhance their performance, they should be allowed to do so. There have been the claims that when the performance enhancing drugs are allowed into the American baseball, the other players who do not use the drugs will have too much pressure as they try to match their opponents or fellow athletes who use the drugs. Conversely, this may possibly not be the situation because the same level of pressure that is felt by the athletes who do not use the drugs is the same level that who use the drugs feel. Baseball players have been allowed to train for even more than 48 hours a week. They have also been allowed to change their diets and push themselves to the boundaries to enhance their performance (Position Statement 67). The same way they have been allowed to stretch their body to the limits to enhance their performance in order to improve the sport is the same way they should be allowed to use the performance enhancing drugs. The athletes should be given the choice to decide whether they want to enhance their performance in the baseball sport through the performance enhancing drugs or through going to the gym and changing their diets. This way each and every baseball player will be accorded the opportunity to decide which avenue to use and in turn it will boost their morale and improve their sport. Drug vs. Technology Mackenzie states that baseball is a sport that is meant for enjoyment (56). As such any thing that makes it to be enjoyed by the players and the fans should be incorporated into the sport. Baseball is normally competitive and it always aims to improve so that the popularity of the sport can be boosted and the number of people who benefit from it increased. This, hence, begs the query as to what is the difference between increasing the skill so the baseball player to make the sport competitive through training and doing it through the performance enhancing drugs. It has been argued that it is normally the personal effort that is required to enhance the skill of the players to make the game competitive. However, the use of other technological and training aids such as crampons in training is just similar to use of the performance enhancing drugs since they are both aimed at improving the skills of the players and in turn ensuring that the sport improves. In baseball, athletes are normally wired into monitoring equipment to monitor the heart, muscles, nerves and the brains. This is normally done to optimize the player’s activity. The dieticians have also changed various food and additives to help in improving the performance of the baseball players. This is same as the use of the performance enhancing drugs. The drugs will help in improving the performance and the skills of the players. Team specialists have always used adhesive plasters on the noses of the players to enhance and increase the intake of oxygen. This is done to enhance performance. The usage of the drugs will, therefore, supplement the already available technology that is meant to increase the player’s skill and thus improving competiveness of the sport. Improves Quality of the Baseball Sport The reason why baseball players train is to be able to be better players. Training has been used in baseball just like in any other sport to bring out the potential of the players (Beamish 45). Similarly, performance enhancing drugs improve the natural potential of the player who takes these drugs. Just the same way players chose what kind of competitors they want to be through training sessions and through the diets that they take, the performance enhancing drugs provide an avenue through which one can bring out his or her natural potential through biological manipulation. It gives the baseball players the capacity and the capability to improve themselves on the basis of their own judgment and reason. The outcome is that the champion of the baseball matches will not only be those people who are born with the best genetic makeup but ones who are able to use their own judgment and reason to improve their capability and bring out their potential through biological manipulation. Baseball should not be a game that appears to be a game of genetic lottery. When the performance enhancing drugs are allowed to be used in baseball, the players with the best combination of genetical make up, potential, judgment, psychology and training will be the winners. This way the quality of the game will be improve as compared to the level that it is right now. The β blockers have been sued by various musicians to be able to improve their performance by controlling their stage freight (Robinson, 56). These drugs work by lowering the heart rate of the musician, minimize the physical effects of stress and lower the blood pressure. When this happens, the musicians are able to express themselves well in the stage and also perform at high levels. As a result the musicians have been able to remain competitive and give out the best of their potential. In the same line, the baseball players will have their performance and potential improve through the use of chemical enhancement. This way quality of baseball will be greatly improved. Levels the Playing Field Some baseball players, just like other athletes have relied on biological manipulation and chemical enhancement to improve their performance and skill. However, due to the fact that the drugs are illegal and prohibited in the sport, they have used these drugs without being noticed because if it is established that they are using the drugs, they are fined and banned from the sport (Hartgens and Kuipers, 34). Baseball players boost the number of their red blood cells in ways that they deem to be undetected. In most of the processes, the athletes remove some blood and re-inject it after the body has made up new blood cells to replace those that had been removed. The other common method is the EPO method that also enhances the number of the red blood cells. Other baseball players have used the method of training in high altitude areas to boost the number of the red blood cells in their bodies (Steroids vs. Human Growth Hormone, 67). Others also use hypoxic air machines. In all these processes the use of the chemical enhancement drugs or biological manipulation drugs is taken to be illegal. Despite this being the case, some baseball players have gone ahead to use them. To have a level ground in the sport of baseball, every player should be allowed to use the performance enhancing drugs when they choose to. Some baseball players have high PCVs and as such have an advantage over the other players (Thein, Thein and Landry, 45). Other athletes are able to afford hypoxic machines. Other players on the other hand have advantage in their genetical make up and physical nature. Therefore, by allowing the baseball athletes to use the performance enhancing drugs, the playing field will have been leveled for all the players. Through the legalization of the drugs, it will be possible to also solve the boundary problem that comes in classifying the drugs. There is normally a small boundary between the therapeutic and the ergogenic drugs. This has resulted in a huge difficulty in coming up with the anti-doping rules. By ensuring that the athletes are allowed to use the drugs this issue will have been solved and the playing field will be leveled for all the baseball players. Conclusion Various notions of performance enhancing drugs have been looked at. Ranging from player perspectives, technological aspects to field effects, the drugs are found to raise mixed feelings and reactions. Arguments of bias while using drugs exist, although many players still use them in secret. This paper has analyzed the usage of the drugs in baseball, and concluded with some positive aspects. Performance enhancing drugs have several advantages and should be allowed to be used in the sport of baseball. Works Cited “Anabolic Steroid Abuse.” National Institute on Drug Abuse. NIDA. Aug. 2006. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. . Beamish, Robs. Steroids: A New Look at Performance Enhancing Drugs. Cremona: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2011.Print Hartgens, F., and Kuipers, H. “Effects of androgenic-anabolic steroids in athletes.” Sports Medicine 34.8, 513-554, 2014. Print. Mackenzie, B. “Ergogenic Aids.” BrianMAC. BrianMac Sports Coach. 2001. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. . “Position Statement: Performance Enhancing Drugs.” American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. AAOS. 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. . Robinson, Tom. Performance Enhancing Drugs. New York: ABDO Publishing Company, 2010.Print. “Steroids Vs Human Growth Hormone”. hgh.org. Hgh.Org. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. . Thein, L. A., Thein, J. M., and Landry, G. L. “Ergogenic aids.” Physical Therapy 75.5. (1995): 426-439. Print. Read More