Ethical
Issues:
-One ethical question surrounding sports supplement use is: Are the athletes
using these supplements still products of hard work and athletic ability or are
they simply a product of these supplements they are taking. I guess the
difficulty comes when an athlete does well at a given sport and is competing
against other athletes is it fair for that athlete to have an advantage simple
because he/she is taking supplements.
-Supplements today are extremely expensive to purchase.
Is it fair that just because one athlete has more money then another they can
compete at a higher level simply because they can buy these supplements whereas
someone without the financial resources would not be able use the supplements.
So financial well-being may predict athletic ability.
-Another ethical issue is the nature of sports is diluted by
athletes taking sport supplements because it is no longer talent against talent.
The athletes have been altered not by hard work but by a "drug".
-Some of the male directed supplements are formulated to
increase testosterone which directly correlates with moodiness, irritability,
and even violent outbreaks. These are the exact behavior type which we do
not want in sports today.
-Lastly, many sport supplements today are not FDA approved
their long-term effects have yet to be discovered for many of them. There
may be serious health risks involved with many of the supplements that athletes
are taking today which begs the question how much science is too much.
Controversial Topics:
The controversies surrounding sport
supplementation today are countless and complicated. These controversies
include:
*Which supplements should athletes be allowed to take?
*Do certain supplements give a substantial physical benefit which would give an
athlete an unfair advantage over his/her competition?
*What should the penalties be for athletes who are caught using illegal
supplements (supplements banned by that league)?
For and
Against:
-These are just a few of the controversies that come up
constantly in the sports world today. It is probably apparent that the
people who do advocate these performance enhancing supplements are many
athletes, coaches, and nearly every bodybuilder in the business. Virtually
every athlete in sports today, at any and all levels, takes some form of
athletic performance enhancing supplement. Performance enhancing drugs
have become so extensive that the U.S. has created the
Anti-Doping Agency. The Anti-Doping Agency is "dedicated to
eliminating the practice of doping in sport, and to preserving the well being of
sport and ensuring the health of athletes through research initiatives and
educational programs." The ADA is the number one advocate against
supplement use and abuse. Their modo is "Keep it fair". The ADA is the
U.S. authority on substance abuse and punishment for those athletes that do not
follow the anti-doping list. The
ADA has to keep not only the athletes in
mind but the spirit of the sport.
Education:
-Education is the number one factor in helping fans
and athletes understand what the true effects of supplements actually are to
the sport and to the athletes. Fans and Citizens must understand that if their
"team" wins but uses supplements and wins as a product of those supplements it
is not really a win. They must not advocate winning at all costs.
Fans want their athletes to do well but if they must understand that the spirit
of the sport may be suffering due that win. The same goes for coaches.
By in large coaches usually can just turn their heads so they can claim
ignorance if one of their athletes is caught using an illegal supplement.
That way it is not detrimental to their program only to the athlete.
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