Should Professional Sports People Be Given Lifetime Bans from Playing Their Sport If They Are Convicted of Using Performance Enhancing Drugs?

Research Essay

Should professional sports people be given lifetime bans from playing their sport if they are convicted of using performance enhancing drugs?

The following essay will discuss whether or not lifetime bans should be implemented to those athletes convicted of using performance enhancing drugs. In particular, it will argue why lifetime bans should be put into practice while considering health, ethics and social and economic factors.

Whether or not professional sportspeople should receive lifetime bans from playing their sports, if they are caught and convicted of using performance enhancing drugs is controversial. Professional sportspeople have been using performance enhancing drugs for centuries. The earliest record dates back to Thomas Hicks in the games of the third Olympiad. Consequently the first official ban of performance enhancing substances was made by the International Amateur Athletic Federation in 1928 (J Savulescu, B Foddy & M Clayton, 2004). While the idea of cheating in sports is not new, the process is becoming more effective. Where athletes used to drink wine potions, eat animal hearts and take hallucinogens; today athletes are tempted with anabolic steroids, amphetamines and human growth hormones (HGH) which greatly increase their chances of winning in competitive competition. When deciding whether to implement lifetime bans to professional athletes a number of factors need to be considered. Performance enhancing drugs can cause serious side effects to an athlete’s health but also give athletes a greater chance of winning. Ethically the concept of fair play comes into effect as doping in sports is illegal. Athletes are also promoted in society as role models and their actions influence other sportspeople in their league as well as younger generations of athletes. This essay will evaluate lifetime bans with respect to health, ethics and social and economic factors.

Generally the taking of drugs is for rehabilitation or...