Should Performance Enhancing Drugs Be Banned Persuasive Essay

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Stop The Dope The use of performance enhancing drugs pose several threats to an athletes health, gives athletes an unfair advantage, and can bring a lost of spirit and integrity for the sporting event and athlete. In athletics there is a code for the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs referred to as the World Anti-Doping Code. This code is enforced by the World Anti-Doping Agency and reads: The code bans a substance or procedure if it meets any two of these criteria: 1) it endangers the athlete's health; 2) it "enhances sport performance"; or 3) it "violates the spirit of sport." Things that pose clear health risks—very high hemoglobin levels, for instance—are easy calls. But what about things that don't? If all enhancements were forbidden, the code points out, we'd have to ban training, red meat, and carbohydrate loading. That would be preposterous. But in the next …show more content…

The use of performance enhancing drugs can lead to great health issues, can provide unfair advantages to those who are in the right and not doping up, and can cause the spirit of the sport to be violated and the loss of an athlete’s integrity. Though one could argue against each of these three criteria and have a valid argument, I believe that the dangers to an athletes health are reason enough for the ban on performance enhancing drugs to continue. Using these drugs can have extreme effects on bodily organs and the quality of life an athlete will lead after their use. The dangers that using a performance enhancing drug could bring to one’s health is not the only issue, causing the spirit of the sport to be violated is also an important reason. Many people look up to athletes or love a sport, but their support for the athlete as well as their support for that particular sporting event is in danger when an illegal act is committed within that

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