Good Competition and Drug-Enhanced Performance.

This article discusses the ethics of performance-enhancing drug use by athletes. The author discusses the widespread use of performance-enhance drugs, such as anabolic steroids among Olympic athletes as early as the 1960s. The internal drive towards achieving excellence in performance among many athletes has lead to this widespread use, despite warnings of serious side effects, such as liver damage, hypertension, and atherosclerosis. The concept of athletic consent toward the use of these drugs is explored ethically, linking the connection between excellence in performance and job security among athletes. The author suggest that the use of performance-enhancing drugs prevents mutual respect between athletes, and subsequently lessens the ideal of good competition.