Blood Doping: Is It Rational and Ethical?
Edward Goldschmidt
Comp. 1112
Prof. Flocco
2/12/2013
Blood Doping: Is it Rational and Ethical? You’re in the big race and your rival who you’ve been neck and neck with all year long somehow beats you by way more than usual. You ran one of the best races of your life and he somehow beat you and you don’t know how. Winning that race would have gotten a lot of opportunities from big colleges and instead of looking at you they’re looking instead, at your rival. How would you feel if you later learned the reason he was able to beat you was only because he started blood doping? Now imagine this happening at the professional level every day. Blood doping is unethical, unfair, unsafe, and needs to be regulated and removed completely from professional sports and recreational use. “Blood doping” is comparable to the administration of anabolic steroids and other drugs with the hope of improving athletic performance. Anabolic steroids have been considered unethical and have been banned from use in sports and blood doping, as it should, is banned as well. The athletes are placing themselves at risk for serious complications without medical benefit. Surely there is the idea that they will do anything to win, but is it worth it? Kathleen Sharp, in her article “A Drug to Quicken the Blood,” shares the negatives to EPO explaining, “Too many red blood cells can turn your blood to sludge and make the heart work overtime. The drug raised the risks of strokes, blood clots, and heart attacks. Even worse was that EPO could potentially multiply cancer cells” (Sharp). EPO has so many health risks and these athletes just ignore them because their goals are more focused on winning rather than their long-term health. There are many other athletes out there, who haven’t admitted to it, but are taking EPO without the public’s knowledge and some of the reason might be that they are taking it just to keep up with others. Imagine this scenario: One athlete starts doping
Comp. 1112
Prof. Flocco
2/12/2013
Blood Doping: Is it Rational and Ethical? You’re in the big race and your rival who you’ve been neck and neck with all year long somehow beats you by way more than usual. You ran one of the best races of your life and he somehow beat you and you don’t know how. Winning that race would have gotten a lot of opportunities from big colleges and instead of looking at you they’re looking instead, at your rival. How would you feel if you later learned the reason he was able to beat you was only because he started blood doping? Now imagine this happening at the professional level every day. Blood doping is unethical, unfair, unsafe, and needs to be regulated and removed completely from professional sports and recreational use. “Blood doping” is comparable to the administration of anabolic steroids and other drugs with the hope of improving athletic performance. Anabolic steroids have been considered unethical and have been banned from use in sports and blood doping, as it should, is banned as well. The athletes are placing themselves at risk for serious complications without medical benefit. Surely there is the idea that they will do anything to win, but is it worth it? Kathleen Sharp, in her article “A Drug to Quicken the Blood,” shares the negatives to EPO explaining, “Too many red blood cells can turn your blood to sludge and make the heart work overtime. The drug raised the risks of strokes, blood clots, and heart attacks. Even worse was that EPO could potentially multiply cancer cells” (Sharp). EPO has so many health risks and these athletes just ignore them because their goals are more focused on winning rather than their long-term health. There are many other athletes out there, who haven’t admitted to it, but are taking EPO without the public’s knowledge and some of the reason might be that they are taking it just to keep up with others. Imagine this scenario: One athlete starts doping