Drugs in Sport
Professional sport is at the vanguard of biomedical research enhancement technologies. Even within the boundaries of strict modern sporting codes, athletes undergo enormously complex training, diet and medical interventions aimed at pushing them to the limits of human performance. But modern professional sport has also been at the heart of an ethical storm concerning the use of these technologies outside the rules. Professional athletes use untested drugs and methods to push their bodies to superhuman extremes, sometimes at serious cost to their health.
Given that modern sport, even without rule-breaking, is increasingly dominated by enhancement technologies, what should our attitude be toward risk-taking and self-modification in sport? Should we try to freeze technological progress in professional sport, maintaining naturalistic ideals about the nature of self-improvement? Or should we see sport as an emblem of human ingenuity and our capacity to improve our lot through science and self-sacrifice?
