by Lynn Edwards

Created on: July 24, 2008   Last Updated: May 01, 2012

Using performance enhancing drugs is cheating. Sport, by its very definition, is the combination of physical exertion and skill governed by rules. It takes very little effort to swallow a pill and not much skill to stick yourself with a hypodermic needle. Before athletic competition was invaded by Medical Science the rules only had to apply to the actual performance of a specific discipline. Now, they've had to be expanded to define the chemical composition of a competitor to determine if he is only using is his natural combination of talent, skill and hard work. Medicine is for making ill people well. It is morally reprehensible to use it to make healthy people stronger, faster or capable of greater endurance.

Even though there's a ton of money involved in professional sports and entire nations' take enormous pride in their athletes' achievements, the use of performance enhancing drugs destroys the souls of its athletic users. Sporting achievements are earned, not bestowed, and deep down participants have to feel that they have deserved the accolades they've striven for or their mental health will suffer. No athlete has ever started at top. Overnight sensations have traveled long hard roads to reach their moments of glory, if they make it at all. From the start, any athlete can say to himself, "I did it." When chemicals are introduced into the system that "I" is no longer alone.

Never is a medical study 100% accurate, and no drug, no matter how commonly used, is totally safe for everyone. When dealing with exceptional physical specimens of humanity it's downright dangerous to experiment. Besides the unpredictable side effects, there are also the unknown long term effects that ingesting any foreign matter can induce. It's just too risky for an activity that is basically an entertainment providing no quantifiable help to humanity or the world in general. Sporting events have gained such popularity in the world because they are a straightforward and primarily visual oases in this crazy, mixed-up world which we have made for ourselves.

If winning is now more important than the competition itself then it would be better for everyone on this planet to eliminate sports all together. Otherwise, we might as well just allow the guys in the lab coats a spot on the field and the podium. After all, since what those scientists are supplying is responsible for an extraordinary performance, they might as well take the credit. Then, instead of teams or countries, the athletes can represent drug companies, belittling what they were born with and the work they've put in making themselves better as they attribute their success to what was supplied to them in a pill or syringe.

Learn more about this author, Lynn Edwards.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.