Performance enhancers

[broncofan]

Freedom,
I understand what you're saying. I'm not pretending your arguments are not compelling. There are detection problems and this leads to cheating and inequality. Here's my problem, and you may be able to clear it up.

First, as has been said in here, if everyone is cheating you will have some players who are better than others, because all other things equal skill and talent will be decisive (this is the good part). But the players who are not quite as good despite using steroids might have an incentive to try to use higher doses. I know you said that higher doses are not more beneficial, and the effective reasonable doses are not as dangerous. But you know human nature as well as I do I'm sure. If someone is getting beaten they will push the envelope. They will take higher doses (whether effective or not), they will take stimulants, they will dope their blood. It's easy to say that any line drawing is a bit arbitrary and we can have equality by allowing full access, but with the competitive nature of sports, people will take dangerous doses. Just my opinion and the proper rebuttal maybe is that with freedom of choice, they sort of make their own bed if they make a stupid choice like that.

Second, Giovanni and Prospero have both brought up this point that I want to elaborate on a little bit. The nature of sports changes with the addition of anabolic components. Part of the joy of watching sports for me is that you have two human beings competing, doing the best they can with what they have. People want to identify with their sports heroes and that is very difficult to do when they take on extremely unnatural proportions. Humans are not the strongest or the fastest or the most agile animals. But part of the enjoyment of sports is the element of willpower, of thought, of competitive desire people bring to a competition. I think hormones dilute that.

[freedom]

Very well reasoned Bronco, I can't find fault with what you say. At this middle point I suppose personal judgement becomes the factor.

For me I rankle at the unfairness of the few having access to technology that others do not. But I recognise your aesthetic argument, in a perfect world there would be no drugs and that would make me happy.

However, I'm a pragmatist and there are drugs so now Pandora is out of her box what is the least bad solution?