Steroids and Professional Sports» Essay Paper

Sports as a recreational activity and as profession continue to face a lot of challenges in the society. Whereas in the past people competed on a fair ground, the recent past has recorded an increase in cheating cases whereby athletes or rather sportsmen and women cheat in order to have an upper in the competition. Most cheating cases in sports in the 20^th century were concerned with the age and the birthplace. However, the end of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st century has seen a different dimension of cheating.

This dimension of cheating is exhibited among sportsmen and women through the use of drugs and in particular steroids. Whereas there have been arguments to propose that steroids should be used or rather legalized in professional sports to give participants autonomy on what they want to do with their lives to succeed as sportsmen and women, steroid should never at all costs be allowed in professional sports (Katz 2008).Steroids and Professional Sports» Essay Paper

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Research Findings and Discussion

To begin with, the use of any form of stimulants among sportsmen has been found to create a platform of unfairness among the participants of any sport (Katz 2008). As a result, the end of such a sport give out results that favor sportsmen and women who utilize these stimulants while being biased towards those players that depend on their natural strength as a way of showing forth the talents they have.Steroids and Professional Sports» Essay Paper

In line with this, steroids have been found to give comparative competing advantage to those players that use it than to those that don’t. Thus, allowing steroids in professional sports would create unfair competing standards among players resulting in fading standards of a particular sport.

It is also important for one to realize that professional sportsmen and women are perceived as role models in the society. Therefore, whatever they do can influence the society positively or negatively. In this regard, legalizing or rather allowing steroids in professional sports would open a channel to moral decay in the society as far as drug abuse is concerned (Katz 2008). This is as a result of the fact that most people, especially the young people adore particular sportsmen and women as their role models. Therefore, if these people especially the young generation realize that the person they adore is allowed to use drugs, they would also indulge in drugs thus ruining their bodies and their natural talents.Steroids and Professional Sports» Essay Paper

Whereas people who support high performing athletes or rather sportsmen may argue that allowing the use of steroids in professional sports would increase the performance of these sportsmen and women, there is no doubt that none of them wants to have these sportsmen just for a little while and then see them no more.

However, supporting the legalizing of steroid use in professional sports would drastically reduce the lifespan of sportsmen since steroids have been found to have a negative impact on the health of their users. In reference to Maugh II (2010) of the Los Angeles Times, steroids have been linked to serious heart diseases that reduce the lifespan of anybody that uses them. In this regard, using steroids would send more sportsmen home and to their deathbeds before their time is due.Steroids and Professional Sports» Essay Paper

Heart diseases are not the only diseases that are linked to the use of steroids. There are other numerous diseases among people in the society that are caused by food supplements that have been enhanced by steroids. According to Dennis (2009) in an article that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, steroid users were diagnosed with anorexia, nausea, severe itching and jaundice. The victims who were diagnosed with these diseases argued that they neither smoked nor used alcohol in their lives. There are also reports of sportsmen who were rendered sterile due to long term use of steroids and therefore are no longer able to get children of their own. Therefore, such effects cannot in any way be ignored in the society and in the sports arena.Steroids and Professional Sports» Essay Paper

The influence of steroids on the introduction of other hard drugs in sports is also difficult to determine. History reveals that any form of compromise can easily loosen the morality of the society thus introducing more perverse behaviors than had been expected. For instance, in the 1950s, the government of the United States regulated the TV and film contents that were displayed to the public. As a result, nudity on national television was less prevalent (Stout 68). However, nudity on national television in the 21^st century is a common scene, with the courts refusing to define obscenity (68). Following this example, allowing steroids in professional sports today may as well act as a channel to legalizing other hard drugs such as heroine, cocaine and bhang or marijuana into sports. To avoid days of uncertainty ahead on what might happen, measures must be put in place at the moment which include total ban of steroids in sports to secure the future of sports.Steroids and Professional Sports» Essay Paper

Conclusion

Whereas it may be argued that steroids increase vitality among sportsmen and women, there are numerous side effects of using this stimulant as a way of boosting one’s energy in sports. To begin with, steroids are associated with diseases such as heart diseases, anorexia, jaundice, etc.Steroids and Professional Sports» Essay Paper

Similarly, if steroids are allowed be used by sportsmen and women, this would contribute to a high rate of moral decay in the society in regard to drug abuse as young people have been found to copy everything they see their sports icons do. On the other hand, this would endanger the future of sports as no one can tell what other drug would be legalized to be used by sportsmen and women.Steroids and Professional Sports» Essay Paper